Lips of an Angel
by Nagiana
Summary: Issa is an Angel, but not just any Angel, a genuine Fallen. Sent to Earth to cleanse her soul of the sins she had committed on Heaven, she joins with the Winchesters. She is stunned, however, when she finds them fighting for her love . . .
1. Prologue

**Okay, I know that I desperately need to update my other stories, but I just HAD to get this one little Supernatural fanfic out of my system, speaking its been bugging me for the last few weeks. Don't you hate all those nagging little voice that say you should totally publish a fanfic when you need to desperately update the ones you have? Yep, uhumm, that's what I've been having to deal with :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural, or Sam or Dean Winchester (although I really, really wish I did ;))**

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><p>The Angel Issa was forcibly thrust to her knees on the cold marble floor, her arms being held firmly behind her back by Michael, his face expressionless, pitiless. Her teeth gritted in stubbornness and she gazed down at the floor in order to avoid looking into His face. Next to her, another Angel, John, was forcibly thrust to his knees as well, his arms restrained by Gabriel. He too gritted his teeth and refused to gaze into the face of the Lord, which so far, was a choice, although Issa knew that it wouldn't be for long.<p>

"You should be ashamed of yourself, Issa." The scratchy, papery-like voice echoed throughout the hall, and Issa nodded and smiled sarcastically.

"Yeah, I know. It's always this way with me. 'Issa you should ashamed'-this and 'Issa you should be ashamed'- that," She rolled her eyes and looked away. "You'd think for a God that claims to love with a love that we mortals and petty creatures cannot hope to even begin to comprehend, that you would _want _your Angels to find love amongst their ranks." She saw Gabriel close his eyes and flinch out of the corner of her eye at her words. She could envision the Lord shaking his head in disappointment.

"I do, Issa, but what I don't like is my Angels making fools of themselves and of others. You don't love John here. You love Gabriel; you have always loved Gabriel, even from the very start when he came to claim you as an Angel. But you cannot have Gabriel because he has been one of the few who has made a vow of celibacy . . . that he has _broken_ . . ." Gabriel bowed his head to the Lord, who continued. "And that he has repented from, but you and Gabriel are not the reason why you are here. You are here because I have sufficient evidence to believe that you and John have been formulating a revolt -"

"Damn right!" Issa closed her eyes and flinched when she heard John's voice ring throughout the hall as he interrupted the Lord. She felt Michael's hands tighten in warning around her arms and she was sure that Gabriel was doing the same in order to restrain the angry Angel. She smiled a small smile. Even though she had screwed over more than a few Angels, including Michael's own best friend, Gabriel, she was relieved that Michael was still an ally . . . for now.

God turned a surprised look onto John, who continued,

"The way you run things is . . . is _deplorable_! The plight of the mortals is worsening, decaying with every day, and yet, you sit up here and act like nothing is going on! I – we! – cannot abide by that any longer -"

"Lord, I could not allow this to continue! I knew, yes, but I had to stop him!" Issa interrupted John before he could get her into even deeper shit. She definitely disagreed with how Heaven was run, but she did not want to revolt and end up in Hell for it! "So I tried. I confronted him, told him that unless he stopped, I would bring his plan to you and he would be sent to Hell to wallow in the Pit. He became violent . . ." She then turned her eyes onto Gabriel, where they silently begged him to help her. "Gabriel heard and entered the room, where he saved me. He called in Michael and Michael came and here we are." Of course, it was nothing like that. Issa _had _confronted John and when it had gotten violent; Gabriel _had_ come in and saved her, although what he found was no less damning. They had been surrounded by many demonic books that under normal circumstances could not enter Heaven since the Lucifer Riots, especially by an Angel, but by a human . . . there would have been Hell to pay, literally, and Gabriel has called Michael in for back-up, which is how they got there.

God turned his gaze onto Gabriel. "Is this true, my son?"

Gabriel gazed into Issa's pleading eyes, remembered their times together, the way her lips would feel pressed against his and how could it felt to be inside of her. He loved her then and he loved her now, as keenly as he had ever, and he could never allow her to suffer in the Maleboges, much less the Pit.

Gabriel nodded his head and turned his eyes onto God. "Yes, father, it is. I found John standing over Issa, a murderous look to his eyes." John gazed at Issa in incredulity, but God kept his eyes on Gabriel.

"Are you lying, my son?"

Without hesitation, Gabriel shook his head. "I would never lie to you father." God nodded slowly before he turned his eyes onto John, where he sighed regretfully and shook his head.

"It always breaks my heart when I have to send one of my Angels to the Pit . . . this time is no different. . ." A horrified look appeared on John's eyes and he fervently shook his head.

"No! No, my Lord, I promise I won't -"

"Goodbye John . . . I am sorry . . ." As soon as those words left his mouth, God stretched out his hand and like the plagues of Egypt quickly descending onto the mortals, a fiery crevice opened underneath John. Fire licked up from the crevice, Gabriel scrunching up his nose against the foul odor permeating from the crevice, which promptly swallowed John up. Issa sat there frozen, her eyes wide with horror at what she had just witnessed. Yes, she had heard of crevices opening that dragged Angels down into the fiery pits of Hell, but _never _had she actually witnessed it before.

"Issa . . ."

Issa turned her eyes back onto the ground in order to not have to look at the omnipotence that that was God. He did not reprimand her for it, nor did he demand that she look at him. For both, she was thankful.

"Issa, normally, I would let you off on a warning, for Gabriel has been so kind as to vouch for you. But . . . speaking something like this has happened before and you have been affiliated with it, I have choice but to condemn to earth . . ." Issa finally turned her eyes onto the Lord, her eyes wide with disbelief, the same look that Gabriel was now gazing at him with. ". . . I condemn you to a temporary life as a Fallen Angel." Issa let out a scream of protest which was overshadowed by Gabriel's loud words,

"Father, have mercy on her! Issa knows what she done was wrong, and she will repent for it, I swear!" God turned his attention onto his oldest son's pleading gaze, and sighed.

"Gabriel, you have been her champion since she first came here, and I should have realized that you and she would start a relationship that could never be. I would like to keep her here, Gabriel, you know that, but . . . she causes too much ill will amongst the Angels, and you know I cannot allow you to break the rules of celibacy like you did." Gabriel opened his mouth to speak, but Issa interrupted him,

"Please, Lord, I will repent for everything, I swear! I-I will go into Solitary; I will take the vows of celibacy, anything but life on earth as a Fallen! Even if it is temporary, I will do anything but that disgrace!" God smiled a small smile and slowly shook his head.

"Issa, I do not think you know what awaits you on earth . . . the life that you will have if you go there . . . the man you will meet -"

"I don't care!" She interrupted again, her eyes falling onto Gabriel's mournful ones. Both of them were at a loss for words now, neither of them wanting to leave the other. "I-I will . . ." She trailed off, tears falling down her cheeks. She shook her head, at a loss for words. "I-I will . . ." God smiled a small smile.

"Goodbye, my daughter . . . may you always have peace . . ."

Gabriel and Issa both let out a screaming yell of protest as another crevice opened up underneath Issa, swallowing her up before Gabriel could let out another yell of protest.

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><p>Sam Winchester shuffled a huge yawn and rubbed his face with his hands, desperately trying to stay awake so that he could keep his eyes on the road. They had been driving for thirteen straight hours, switching drivers every few hours or so. Dean was conked out in the seat beside him and Sam was watching the road signs for any fleabag motel that was coming up on the next exit. <em>Stairway to Heaven <em>was playing on the radio and Sam shot a glance at Dean as he let out a low grumble and shifted into a more comfortable position against the locked car door. Sam sighed again and turned his eyes back onto the dark road in front of him. That's when he sees it.

It starts out as a little yellowish-orange pinprick in the distance; a spot of light against an otherwise black as raven sky. Sam furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he gazed at the strange light that seemed to grow bigger and bigger as they drew nearer to it. It was bigger than a pinprick now; it was now the size of an SUV now.

"Um . . . Dean?"

Dean let out a tired grumble as he shifted against the car door, murmuring something about wake him up when the penguins come home, but Sam wasn't listening to him. The once pinprick of light was now the size of a tank and growing bigger as it rushed at them. The sound of roaring flames could be heard as well, and Sam felt queasier as it grew closer to them.

"Dean, I really think -"

"Dammit Sam, what did I say about -"

"_Dean, what the Hell is that_!" Sam slammed on the brakes and the tires immediately locked, causing the car to fishtail down the black pavement as the meteor-like thing crashed to the road in front of them, making the earth tremble and shake at the force. Balls of flame went everywhere alongside bits of rubble and chunks of asphalt, and both of the men froze in their seats for a moment, glaring at what had just happened in front of them.

Dean blinked a few times before he finally spoke. When he did, his voice was monotone, his eyes unblinking. "Correct me if I'm wrong . . . but did a fucking meteor just hit the earth in front of us?" Sam nodded as he slowly licked his lips.

"Uh . . . yeah, I think one did."

Dean and Sam shared a stunned look before they scrambled out of the car, running to the smoking crater in front of them. They gazed into the hole, waiting for the smoke to clear before they gazed down into it in shock. Dean hit Sam on the shoulder repeatedly, not one of them registering that he was doing it out of stunned shock.

"S-S-Sam, is that what I think it is?" Sam nodded as they watched the naked woman sit up on her haunches in the crater, her arms moving to cover her breasts and her giant black feathered wings unfurling and stretching out to their full wingspan, trembling slightly as they stretched and then going to furl gracefully by her sides. They watched the black wings warily, noting exactly how massive they were and then how beautiful the moon pale woman sitting trembling in the crater was. Dean swallowed heavily and Sam nodded, both of them unable to take their eyes off of Issa.

"Yeah, you're seeing right . . . that woman is a Fallen Angel, Dean . . . in the fuckin' flesh."


	2. Chapter 1

Issa could remember herself screaming. She could remember hurtling through the air like a meteorite, her skin on fire, her hair, and her wings . . . her beautiful perfectly groomed white wings . . .

When she hit the earth, she was immediately knocked unconscious, for how long, she wasn't sure but she did remember waking up and seeing two humans standing on the edge of the crater, gazing down at her in shock and awe before they started quickly sliding down the edge toward her.

That was when she blacked out.

Now, instead of the hard packed dirt of the earth, she felt soft fabric beneath her, around her. Her head felt like someone had buried an ax in it, she thought she might have broken one or two ribs and she was pretty sure her femur was pulverized, but other than that, she was warm, she was safe, she was –

Issa shot up in bed, her eyes wide with horror. She looked around, desperately trying to figure out where she was, but nothing gave her any clues. Her hand ran over her body, wincing when they ran over her ribcage (yep, she had definitely broken or bruised a few ribs) and when she tried to move her left leg, she gave a scream of pain as what felt like knives descended into her flesh, right into the bone. She had been dressed, although they weren't very girlish, a pair of men's boxer shorts and an old, faded Spiderman t-shirt. She winced again when she saw her black and blue fingers.

Goddamn, she never expected Falling could hurt _so much_!

She then laid down on her side, curling up into her as best she could with her shattered leg and buried her hands in her hair, allowing the tears to come streaming out, the sobs to come. She had never meant for it to come this far! Someone had to instigate a change, though, to get people to see what kind of injustices were happening, but it had been too late . . .

Gabriel . . . her Gabriel . . .

She sniffed and sucked up the tears and the sobs, knowing in her heart and in her bones that Gabriel and Michael were probably pleading her case to God right now, Gabriel more than Michael, but Michael was still a friend . . . he was _her _friend, her only blood brother and while Raphael hid no dislike of her, Michael, as her real, blood brother, would stop at nothing to get her back, to return to her, her wings. Gabriel especially wouldn't give up, she knew him.

But maybe . . . maybe he was right . . . maybe Issa was always meant to be the rebellious one . . . maybe that was why He took in an interest in her the first place . . . opened her eyes and showed her the world for what it could be, a world where pain was gone, poverty was gone, sin . . .

Issa closed her eyes and let out a low moan. But like _that _ended well.

There was a quiet knock on the door and Issa shot up in bed again, her muscles tense, her eyes wide with defiance as the door slowly opened. She wouldn't be able to move with this leg of hers but she knew she wouldn't go down without a fight . . .

The man that entered was not exactly what she had expected. Dressed in jeans, black converses and an Abercrombie&Finch sweater, his brown hair falling into his face and around his ears in graceful waves, he wasn't exactly the greasy, sweaty pig that she had expected to walk in the door.

She still wasn't giving him an inch, though.

He smiled a small smile and chuckled as he held up the plate of food and a glass of water. "You were out for a pretty long time . . . two days. We thought you might be hungry . . ." He told her and Issa swallowed heavily as she gazed at him. Her blue eyes seemed to pierce his very soul, to see every dark thing he had ever done and Sam shifted uneasily from foot to foot. Jesus, he was a demon hunter and already, this Fallen Angel had him sweating like a sinner in church.

He chuckled again at the irony of that saying.

When she didn't make any move to speak, he set the plate of food and glass of water down on a nearby dresser and extended his hand. Issa flinched and backed even further up the bed, almost as if he had slapped her and he quickly withdrew the hand. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to freak you out!" He soothed, his eyes worried. "I was just . . . My name's Sam. W-what's yours?" He asked and Issa swallowed heavily again. When she spoke, her voice was husky and scratchy with misuse. She suddenly wanted that glass of water very bad.

"M-my name's Issa . . ." She gestured to the glass of water behind him. "C-can I have the water? My throat . . ." Without saying anything more, Sam had nodded quickly and turned around to pick up the glass of water. When he turned around, he found that she was leaning forward expectantly; craning her neck to see what kind of food was on the plate. Sam grinned in amusement as he stepped aside.

"I'm afraid it's not ambrosia and nectar, but it's the best I could do on our budget. Bacon and eggs, the American breakfast . . ." Issa swallowed hard again and nodded to them with her head.

"Can I have them too?" Sam chuckled as he picked up the plate and moved over to the bed, where he set the plate down in front of her and handed the glad of water to her. When he moved to sit on the edge of the bed, she didn't flinch, although she still eyed him warily, almost like he was a rabid dog just biding his time until he decided he wanted to bite.

She picked up a slice of bacon and nibbled on it as Sam spoke,

"Do you . . . do you remember anything?" He asked her and immediately when he said that, images - memories - flashed through her head. She remembered the crevice opening up underneath her, the horrified look on Gabriel and Michael's faces as she fell through, feeling the uncomfortable sensation of your stomach leaving you as she plummeted to the earth, her body engulfed in fire, her wings turning black as she Fell . . .

Issa shook her head. "No." She spoke softly before she took a gulp of the water. It felt divine! The coolness slid down her throat in a cascading waterfall, soothing and mending as it went. She heard a laugh and Sam put a gentle hand on her arm.

"Hey, take it easy! You'll throw-up if you don't!" He told her and Issa did as he suggested, blushing slightly at the amount of warmth that speared through her body when he lay his hand gently on her arm. Angels were cold . . . they didn't need to be warm; they were dead and technically only spirits. But this . . . this warmth . . . Issa could suddenly imagine why so many Angels had willingly Fallen after they felt the touch of a human.

_"Issa, I do not think you know what awaits you on earth . . . the life that you will have if you go there . . . the man you will meet -"_

Issa blushed and looked away again as she busied herself with her food, stabbing at her scrambled eggs with her fork. God's words still rang out in her mind. The man she would meet? What the Hell did he _mean_ by that? He didn't mean _this _man . . . did he?

Issa turned her eyes back onto Sam, her blue-gray eyes running over his handsomely chiseled features, his thick brown hair and his to-die-for body. He was certainly delectable enough, but Gabriel . . . she missed Gabriel.

Of course, she had heard rumors throughout her days in Heaven, rumors that shocked the Angels, even made some of them blush when they realized they yearned for the same thing. Anastasia had Fallen, Jonas had Fallen, Urraca had Fallen . . . and all of them had Fallen for a mortal. As far as she knew, they could never return too. They were Fallen, the only way they could return was to die of old age and then descend into Purgatory for a millennium, but they had all done so _willingly_ . . . for a _mortal_.

Issa continued to gaze at Sam for a moment, at the worried look in his eyes, the concern. She felt the heat from his hand soaking into her warmth-starved body and suddenly, she realized that she understood why. Angels wanted warmth and the mortals . . . the mortals were all too willing to give them that.

Issa gently moved her arm out from under his and went back to her food, blushing at the thoughts that burned through her mind as they sat there in silence, Issa painfully aware of Sam sitting there beside her, calmly watching her. It wasn't an awkward silence, though, it was a comfortable one and she found herself wondering what it would feel like to feel him, that comforting warmth, around her body, too feel him inside of her . . . to not feel cold anymore.

"We don't eat ambrosia and nectar, by the way." She told him, finally breaking the silence, and Sam gazed at her in slight confusion.

"What do you mean?" He asked and she turned her eyes onto him for a moment, her tongue worrying at a piece of bacon that had somehow wormed its way between two of her teeth. "You said something earlier . . . over how this food wasn't ambrosia or nectar . . . we don't eat ambrosia and nectar." She told him and Sam grinned and laughed. He had a cute grin, she couldn't help but think, and he answered her seconds later,

"It was meant as a joke, but . . ." He trailed off and the amusement died from his face, only to be replaced with a look of solemnity. "Does that mean you _do _remember?" Issa sat there for a moment, wondering if she should lie again, but something about this man made her not want to.

She nodded her head and went back to her food. "Yes, I remember."

"If you mind me asking . . . what did you do to be condemned to the life of a Fallen?" Issa shrugged.

"Shit happens; I guess . . . I just happened to piss off the wrong guy." She told him quietly and he continued to gaze at her in slight confusion.

"What happened to your wings? We brought you here the night your Fell and you had them. The next day, they had disappeared."

"They disappear when we don't need them, to make us blend in better," She turned her eyes onto his. "Why, do I need them?" Sam shook his head.

"No, no, I was just curious." Issa gazed at the empty glass of water for a moment before she hesitantly extended it to him.

"Can I have some more water? I would get it myself, but you know . . . the leg and all." Sam nodded and took the glass, where he stood.

"Yeah, sorry 'bout the leg, it must have hurt like Hell! We wrapped and set it the best we could but without a doctor, it'll have to do." Issa nodded as he returned with a full glass of water and she gazed at him in wariness.

"What do you mean 'we'?"

"I and my brother found you. Dean's out now fallowing up on a lead."

"You're a demon hunter?" Sam nodded.

"Yep . . . I'm a demon hunter in the flesh."

"So it's just us, tonight?" Sam nodded again.

"It's just us until Wednesday, actually. Our lead was in Springfield." A look of playfulness came into his eyes. "Why, you thinking of running away?"

Issa shot him a look. "And how am I supposed to do that with a bum leg?" Sam shrugged as he resumed his place beside her on the bed.

"You could always fly away." Issa rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"I wish . . . but then the mortals would see and I would land me a one-way ticket to fifty more years in Purgatory."

"What do you mean, fifty more years?"

"Every time an Angel Falls, he or she gives up her immortal status. The only way he or she can return is when they die and then sent to wallow in Purgatory for a millennium, unless, of course, the Big Guy Upstairs takes an interest in you. Then you may or may not get your sentence shortened."

"So flying when your Fallen gets fifty years knocked onto your sentence?"

"That happens only if you're seen. They don't tell you that but . . . there's your loophole."

Sam smiled and stood. "Are you done with that?" He asked, gesturing to her plate and Issa nodded as she handed him the empty plate. He waited while she drained her glass of water and he took that too, turning around to take it into the kitchenette in the other room. Issa watched him go, her eyes on his perfectly shaped ass.


	3. Chapter 2

**Okay, I know the chapter is a little confusing towards the end, but don't worry, Issa will explain things in the next chapter. Well . . . she better, or else I'm probably going to get a lot of bad reviews telling me you guys are confused :) ;)**

**Anyway, here's the next chapter and I think that I'm going to put Dean into the next one as well; maybe even have a little POV of Gabriel and/or Michael . . .**

**Well whatever, I'll decide that later. But for now, read the chapter and enjoy!**

**- Nagiana**

**PS (Disclaimer)- I do not own Supernatural or Dean and Sam Winchester or any other character from the show I choose to put in here. The only one I own is Issa and that's bout it :)**

**PPS- Sorry for the short chapter, I'll try and make the next one a little longer :)**

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><p>Sam and Issa bonded a lot over the three days that Dean was not there. He taught her basic human quirks that she would not know otherwise, like when to shake hands and not to shake hands, what words were appropriate to say and what to do and what not to do in public. On the second day he taught her (in her opinion) the completely stupid game of Checkers that Issa found herself thanking God every second for not having in Heaven. Hell, maybe he found it stupid and pointless too.<p>

One thing that Issa adored, however, was her immortal ability to heal herself, something that she thanked God every day for allowing her to keep, probably because her stay was only temporary. She had yet to inform Sam of it, however, but she could tell in his eyes that he suspected as much. Her ribs healed within two days and her bruises disappeared after a good night's sleep, shocking Sam at the quickness, which he quickly got rid of when he pieced two and two together. Her leg was healing nicely also and Sam served as a makeshift physical therapist for her, supporting her as she put a little bit more weight on it every day.

On the third day, he kissed her.

It had been one of her daily mini-physical therapy sessions and Issa was determined to walk across the room, believing that both she and her leg were strong enough for the exertion, although Sam expressed many times that he wished she didn't push herself so. Sam had been with her every step of the way, however, and when he finally let her go and stepped slowly backwards, making sure she wouldn't fall, Issa shakily put one foot in front of the other and slowly but surely, made her way to the other side of the room, her heart lifting higher and higher the more steps she made without falling down or having to grab ahold of something for balance.

When she reached the far wall, she felt like singing at the top of her lungs. She turned around and saw Sam's beaming face, how much handsomer he looked when he smiled and her heart lifted even more. She took a step to him but when her foot hit the floor that was when it decided it wanted to collapse from underneath her, the muscles screaming in agony as they tensed and then gave out.

Issa felt herself falling . . . the floor rushing up to her at with the speed of light and she squeezed her eyes shut, anticipating the pain, but it never came.

She opened her eyes and became keenly aware of the strong arms that were wrapped around her waist, the brown hair that was so unlike her own midnight colored locks that fell in her face and the feel of a hard stomach pressing into her ass and back.

"Don't worry . . . I won't ever let you fall again . . ." He breathed in her ear, and Issa felt tears well up in her eyes again. Her hands smoothed out on his clasped ones around her waist and she took a shuddering breath, trying not to cry.

"Sam . . ." She spoke, her voice reminding him of their position, and he immediately stood up straighter, helping Issa as she righted herself on her now throbbing leg. His face was flushed as she turned to gaze up at him with his help.

"I-I'm sorry Issa, I . . . just didn't want you to fall and hurt yourself again." He told her and Issa smiled a small smile in thanks.

"Thanks Sam, but I doubt I would have been hurt too bad," She told him, her mind all-too aware of the warmth that spread throughout her body through her clothes at the feel of his hands still on her waist. When he released her, her body screamed in protest when the warmth left her, at how quickly she became cold again. She fell into his arms a few minutes later, Sam slowly wrapping her in his arms in shock. "Don't ever let me go . . . your warm . . ." She told him and Sam licked his lips as he hugged her.

"What do I being warm have to do with you pressing up against me?" He asked, chuckling and Issa shrugged lamely before she answered him,

"Angels are naturally cold creatures . . . we crave the warmth of a mortal. That is the reason why so many of us willingly become Fallen. We touch a mortal in some way, we feel their warmth, we fall in love with it, we crave it . . . sooner or later we're falling in love with them and we're Falling." Sam nodded in understanding as he gently pushed her away for a moment. He observed her for a moment before he cupped her face in his hands and pressed his lips gently to hers, their outermost molecules of their lips brushing. Soon, Issa's hands were on his strong shoulders and she was pulling him to her, pressing her mouth to his in a burning, searing kiss that had warmth spreading throughout her body at the feel of his tongue against hers, filling her mouth, filling _her._

His hands filled themselves with the abundance of her dark hair, pulling her ever closer to him, and when they broke apart, their breathing ragged, they were still so close; they almost seemed to occupy the same place in time and space.

They broke apart and without breaking their gaze, Issa bit her bottom lip as Sam's hands move gently up her hips, her sides, moving across the smooth expanse of her stomach. Issa closed her eyes and shuddered at the feeling of the warmth spreading across her abdomen. His thumbs brushed the plump underside of her breasts and she brought his lips down to hers again, creating a gentle, almost loving kiss.

As if broken out of a trance, Sam suddenly jumped and pushed her gently away, shaking his head in disbelief, his eyes wide with shock and a disbelief that mirrored what he felt in his heart. "What-what am I – we shouldn't be doing this!"

The warmth slowly ebbed away when he left her, leaving behind smoky tendrils of something akin to pain. It wasn't agony by a long shot, but then again, it wasn't exactly the most comfortable sensation either.

Then, she felt ashamed. Was she using him to get that mortal warmth, to satiate that craving she now felt in every fiber of her being? Was she – like every Angel and Fallen that had felt it too – addicted to it, as something that they could never have _unless _they committed the ultimate sacrifice and Fell?

Issa hugged herself, shivering as the warmth left her and the cold returned, bringing with it a sensation that was closer to agony than anything . . . a sensation of pain that was _growing_, as if the coldness was destroying every ounce of warmth in her body!

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, a look that Sam mirrored when he noticed the look on her face. It was not a look of confusion that one got when they were spurned, but a look that one adopted when something in their body wasn't right, and they knew it.

"Issa, what's wrong?"

"I . . . I don't know . . . I feel . . ." She swallowed heavily and hugged herself tighter. The coldness was coming back at an alarming rate and suddenly, she couldn't breathe . . . she felt like she was drowning in icy cold water . . . water that took away every ounce of cold and every breath with it.

Suddenly, she collapsed to the floor, feeling the coldness engulf her like stabbing knives; knives that sliced into her skin and her muscle and her bone. She screamed with the pain of it all, despite the fact that she could barely breathe, and Sam dropped to his knees beside her, a frightened look on his face. "Issa tell me what's wrong!" He shouted over her screams and Issa shook her head, tears streaming down her face. This hurt infinitely worse than her Falling hand.

"Make them stop Sam! Make the knives stop!" Sam gazed at her contorting body in bewilderment, seeing no mark, bruise, puncture wound – nothing! - appear on her body, nor any of her 'knives' slicing into her skin and muscle to her bone.

"There are no knives, Issa, your imagining it; I promise you are!" He told her, his eyes frightened but his voice sure, and Issa shook her head.

"They're stabbing me Sam, you have to believe me! Oh my God, the _pain_ . . .!"

Sam, utterly at a loss as what to do, and assuming that it was something like a seizure - something that just had to play out – picked her up in his arms bridal style, where he stood. She huddled against him, her face burying in his chest, and when she did so, her thrashing, the contorting of her body, simply stopped. She could breathe freely now and she felt the warmth run into her body again, fighting away the cold and the pain. Sam stood there, stunned.

"Issa . . . what just happened?"

Issa registered his question, spoken in a shaky and fearful voice, but her vision was starting closing in on itself. Her body was exhausted from the onslaught of pain and the sudden release of it, and she felt her eyes becoming heavy-lidded.

"You are the . . . reason why I'm Falling . . ."

No sooner had those murmured words left her lips, did she black out, allowing sleep to take her in his marvelously warm embrace.


	4. Chapter 3

**Okay, explanation time and Dean's intro!**

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><p><em>Gabriel's POV . . .<em>

"It's happening . . . dammit Michael, it's happening!"

The Archangel Michael rolled his eyes as he sat back in his chair, observing his fingernails in the dull candlelight. He quickly grew tired of doing that, however, and moved to gaze at his friend instead. His blue eyes twinkled in the light as a look of boredom and slight irritation crossed his handsome face.

"I can't see from here, you see Gabriel, so if you'd be so kind as to tell me what _exactly _ishappening to my sister, that'd be wonderful, _thanks._ . ."

Gabriel whirled around, a look of fury on his face at his friend's sarcastic answer. "She's Bonding, Michael, that's what's happening!" He yelled at him, and Michael rolled his eyes again.

"My sister is Bonding to someone other than you and your getting mad at _me_? Gabriel, buddy, you got to rearrange your priorities!" He grinned, chuckling, and Gabriel threw his hands up in the air in frustration.

"I don't need your snide little comments right now, Michael! Yes, she's Bonding and I am angry that's it's not with me, but does it have to be some filthy, _mortal_ demon hunter?" Michael shrugged.

"Hey, to each his own I guess. I mean . . . I'm sorry Gabriel, but up here, you're a catch. But down there, however . . ." Michael stood up and clapped a hand on his friend's shoulder, where they both craned their necks over the balcony to gaze down at the mortal plane, which was now showing them a blown up scene of Issa being cradled in Sam's arms. It was depicted in a scene that kind of reminded them of a show on TV. "But down there, Gabriel, there are no vows of celibacy! And judging by the way that 'demon hunter' is holding my sister, and my sister's thought process in general, I judge that she's already said 'fuck you' to those vows of celibacy. Not-to-mention, you have _that _little _diamond_ – rewind please . . ."

The 'TV' obediently rewinded itself and stopped at Issa and Sam's little kissing scene.

"Now that definitely tells me that she's forgotten about you. Plus, if she's already feeling the Bonding withdrawals, then she's definitely going to forget you!"

Gabriel stood there for a moment, thinking. Could Issa truly have forgotten about him, or was she still staying true to him? If she was, though, then what was with her allowing that demon-hunter to kiss her . . . to feel her up? His heart screamed in agony that she had left him, but his mind told him that there had to be _some _kind of explanation.

And the logical path was the one that Gabriel chose to take. His psyche couldn't bare to take the other path right now.

"There has to be an explanation," He told Michael genially. "I and Issa love each other! She would never betray me on good conscious!" Michael scoffed.

"Gabriel, me and you both know that my sister's conscious isn't exactly on the right playing field and that it never has been!" He chuckled, and Gabriel shook his head.

"I mean . . . she's all alone down there, and he _did _save her! Maybe . . . maybe she felt _obliged_ to kiss him!" Michael nodded his expression one of sarcastic dawning of recognition.

"Oh, of _course _that's what happened! How could we be so _stupid _Gabriel? She felt obliged to kiss him, just as she felt _obliged_ to also allow his hands up her shirt!" Michael smiled sarcastically. "You're in denial, Gabriel . . . just face the facts already."

"Well what else could it be?" He asked him weakly, at a loss for ideas, and Michael shrugged.

"Maybe you're just overanalyzing things. Maybe she's just . . . moved on? Maybe it's just as simple as that." Gabriel shook his head.

"She's only been on earth three days, Michael . . . could she have really moved on that fast?" Michael shrugged.

"That or her mind has. Either way . . . I'd probably kiss our relationship goodbye if I were you."

* * *

><p><em>Meanwhile, back on Earth . . .<em>

Once again, Issa awoke to a feeling of being snuggled in something warm and soft, although this time, she wasn't exactly lying on a bed. This time, it was something hard and . . . _moving._

There were sounds in the background too. There was the deep rhythmic breathing of someone, and then the quiet voices of what she assumed were the characters on a television show. She let out a moan of both exhaustion and slight pain as her body reacted to her sleeping in the same uncomfortable position for God only knows how many hours, and shifted slightly. The warm thing she was wrapped in fact, the blankets off the bed and the hard thing she was laying against, was in actuality, Sam's chest. He was sitting on the couch, the TV on across from him and Issa curled up in a blanket in his arms.

She opened her eyes and waited for them to uncomfortably adjust to the near-total blackness of the room, only to find Sam gazing down at her, a weak smile on his face. "Hey, you're awake . . ." He murmured and Issa gazed around blearily.

"What happened? Why am I not in the bed?" She asked sleepily, and Sam shrugged.

"You tell me. One minute, we were locking lips and I pulled away, saying it was wrong, and then the next, you were on the ground screaming and contorting your body into uncomfortable, circus-like poses. When I picked you up to _take _you to the bed, you immediately stopped squirming in my arms and I thought that maybe it had something to do with somebody actually touching you, so I sat down here, wrapped you in a blanket, and you slept for a few hours."

Issa stayed silent for a while, deep in thought, and Sam tilted her head up to gaze at him, his expression soft and kind. "You mind telling me what just went on, so I can know what to do in the future?" He asked, and Issa shrugged.

"That's the thing Sam . . . I _don't _exactly know what happened."

"You also told me something before you blacked out," He spoke. "You said . . . 'You are the reason why I'm Falling.' . . . what did you mean by that?"

Issa shook her head. "I-I don't know . . ." She lied, knowing full well what it meant. She was going through the same things that all the Angels since the dawn of time, had to go through when they were Falling. First, it was harmless, just little sparks of warmth here and there that went away easily. They started in your fingertips, your toes. Then, as their relationship with the mortal they were feeling the warmth from, progressed, so did the warmth spreading throughout their bodies. Soon, it would evolve from little harmless sparks, into full-on waves that would spread throughout your body with the quickness of a poison gas. At this stage, when they were apart . . . the withdrawal systems were akin to those of heroin . . . they could kill you if you didn't do anything about it. The whole process was called Bonding, a name for the wings of the Angel's already black wings being clipped.

Issa was Bonding . . . to _Sam_.

Sam gazed down at her with a look of skeptism and Issa averted her eyes. She didn't know what to tell him. What _could _she tell him that wouldn't completely chase him off? Mortals looked at love differently than Angels; some of them took it more seriously than others. Issa had a feeling that Sam was one of those mortals.

"About . . . about that kiss -"

"Ahh, think nothing of it, Issa," Sam told her. "It was . . . we were both caught up in the moment and it just happened. I promise that it won't happen again."

_But I want it to happen again . . ._

Issa smiled a small smile and nodded. "G-Good . . ." She replied quietly, her hand moving to his chest. She felt the gentle rise and fall of it, the beat of his powerful heart mere inches away from her fingertips. Warmth flooded her body and made her skin tingle and crawl. Her heart started beating, in unison with his, and she felt tears well up behind her eyes. She closed her eyes and bowed her head, unwilling to allow him to gaze upon her when she was about to cry.

Of course she wouldn't be that lucky.

With a look of concern, he gently tilted her head up so that he could gaze into her eyes. For the first time, someone was looking at her with concern and fear. Concern that something was wrong with her, fear that he wouldn't be able to stop whatever it was.

"Issa, _what is wrong_?" He asked pointedly, and Issa shook her head and moved her head out of his grasp.

"It is nothing Sam, I promise -"

"Issa, you're starting to scare me!" He told her. "I know something is wrong, don't lie to me -"

He was interrupted by car door slamming shut in the parking spot outside the door, and Sam trailed off to a silence, his eyes on the door leading to their hotel room. They heard a key in the lock, the key turn, and the door open. A man stepped in, with short brown hair, deep brown eyes and a body was almost virtually skin to Sam's. He turned around after closing the door, took one look at Sam and Issa and smirked.

"Damn Sam . . . 'bout time you got yourself laid!"

Issa felt Sam blush as he stood up slightly and gently laid Issa down on the sofa, where he stood up to face the man. "Well, I'm not exactly like you Dean . . . I have morals." Issa gasped slightly, her eyes immediately falling on the grinning man opposite Sam.

"Aw, what's the point of morals? They're like having an overly protective mother . . . you can't do anything fun!" He grinned charmingly and moved over to Issa, where he extended his hand to her. "And hello, by the way. My name's Dean, I'm Sam's older brother," He looked her up and down for a moment before he spoke again. "And if Sam would have told me you were so pretty, I would have come back sooner!"

Issa grinned and laughed as she shook Dean's hand. "It's nice to meet you Dean. My name's Issa." Dean nodded in approval.

"Issa . . . isn't that name Spanish?" Issa nodded.

"Yes, it is." Dean nodded again and glanced at Sam.

"Isn't she just the prettiest thing?" He asked, still grinning, and Sam nodded in agreement, although he gazed at their still clasped hands with a look of barely concealed jealously. Issa smiled a small smile as she removed her hand from Dean's and stood, where she moved over to Sam. She gently touched his side, causing warmth to spread up her arm again, but not without sending a jolt throughout her arm that reminded her vaguely of a static shock. The shock also made Sam jump in surprise, his eyes immediately falling onto Issa, and the grin disappeared from Dean's face, only to be replaced with a look of triumph.

"Well, well, well . . . you two seem to have gotten a little bit busier than you thought, Sam . . . this Fallen Angel's Bonding with you."


	5. Chapter 4

**Okay, I know this chapter is rather short and ends rather abruptly, but quite frankly, I didn't know really how I wanted to end it and was just playing along until I got something I liked. I kinda liked this ending, so I kept it.**

**Next chapter will be a little longer and bring tissues when you read it, cause its gonna make you cry and most probably contain a lemon (which, if you know, will be dedicated to one of my most ardent readers - my most tearful, lemony chapters always are a homage) so be patient until this, I want to get it absolutely right!**

**Anyway, enjoy the chapter and thank you all for your great reviews!**

**- Nagiana**

* * *

><p>A stricken look appeared on Issa's face, and Sam immediately noticed it. He stepped away from Issa a little bit, his gaze flickering from between Dean and Issa. Her hand fisted in his shirt a little bit, keeping him from moving a little bit too far away from her, and this action made Dean's look of triumph even greater.<p>

"But of course, Issa already knows that, doesn't she? She has known that for a very long time now, hasn't she?"

"Only for a day," She spoke quietly, her eyes glued onto Dean's. Sam's expression became even more confused. "I've known only for a day. I felt the warmth, yes, but I did not feel the withdrawals until this afternoon." Dean nodded as Sam gazed between her and Dean.

"What the _Hell _is going on?" He demanded, and it was Dean who cut Issa to the quick.

"Angels get addicted to warmth, Sam. When they get addicted to the warmth of a certain mortal, they begin to Bond to that mortal. Bonding is an extremely painful process that, when completed, is completely irreversible and very dangerous to the Angel if they are ever separated for a long expanse of time," Dean turned his eyes onto Sam. "Sam, Issa is Bonding to you."

Issa looked down, better to avoid Sam's eyes when they fell onto her. They were wide with shock and horror. "Issa . . . why didn't you tell me you were Bonding to me?"

"I didn't know!" She told him firmly. "I didn't know until this afternoon, and that was only when I was passing out."

"But this has happened before, hasn't it, Issa? You've Bonded before, haven't you? It almost killed you, didn't it?"

The look Issa gave Dean was a look of bloody murder, and Sam found himself looking between them again for an explanation. Soon, Issa gave them one.

"Freedom . . . is the ability to challenge yourself far beyond the constraints of traditional rule and order. We draw strength from our passions . . . we're driven by desire. Even hatred can be a worthy ally when used against an enemy, and yet, we are told to turn our backs on these things . . . the very feelings, the emotions that make us all human. Angels are forced to give these up and some are forcibly given vows of celibacy. Some are able to cope with it . . . others aren't." Issa looked down, a tear falling down her face.

"Falling is the last thing an Angel feels . . . and with him, I Fell . . . and with Gabriel, I continued to Fall. But with neither of them, I had Bonded. You were wrong in that, Dean."

"Who made you Fall in the first place?" Sam asked her, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion and curiosity, and Issa turned her tear-stained eyes onto Sam_._

"He was the Revolution. He promised change, he promised so many things . . ." Sam's gaze softened as he gazes at her, and the look of triumph disappeared from Dean's.

"He was Lucifer." Dean spoke for her, and Issa nodded, tears going silently down her cheeks.

"He was so smooth . . . his voice alone felt like honey. He had promised me and the rest of his followers a world where everything would change. It would be a world akin to the Eden, where pain and loss was gone, where sin was a thing of the past. He made me fall in love with him . . . took me when Michael warned against it. When he started the revolt that turned Heaven onto its ear, I quickly stood beside him. But . . . as I saw my brothers and sisters die, one-by-one as they tried to kill him, I-I couldn't . . ." Issa shook her head. "I surrendered as Lucifer fell, as he descended into the bowels of Hell, and I was punished severely. I was whipped, I was flayed, but his ideals would not leave me. They were like worms that burrowed into me and refused to leave. The reason I Fell a couple of days ago is because I met this Angel – Jon – who held the same ideals as the ones that had been planted inside my head. He too had been touched by Lucifer and like me, he wanted Heaven to change. We were found out and brought before God. John was sent to wallow in the Pits and I was deemed a Fallen. If it wasn't for Gabriel covering up for me, I too would have been sent to the Pits. I would have been reunited with Lucifer, yes . . . but not the man I had known . . . not the revolutionary I had known. I feared this new Lucifer . . . the evil man that everyone grew up fearing . . ."

Sam placed his hand on her shoulder and Issa jumped slightly at the amount of warmth that speared through her, her words trailing off. "You don't have to worry about him anymore, though. You are safe here, with us." He assured her, smiling comfortingly, and Issa returned the smile as she stepped closer to him. Dean's lips pursed slightly at this motion.

"Sam, can I talk to you for a minute?" He asked, and Sam nodded as he let go of Issa. Her face immediately paled and Sam gazed at her worriedly.

"Are you okay if I stand on the other side of the room?" He asked, and Issa nodded as she sat down shakily on the couch, her arms moving to wrap around her. Sam fallowed Dean to the other side of the hotel room and when they were a safe distance away, Dean slapped Sam on the arm, none-to-friendly.

"Sam, what the Hell are you doing?" Dean demanded, and Sam shrugged.

"What am I doing, Dean?" He asked, and Dean shook his head in wonderment.

"You're getting attached to her . . . Goddamn it Sam, we promised, that after Madison -"

Sam held up his hands, effectively silencing Dean, who was stopped talking, but adopted a look of his customary irritation on his face. "Dean, I know we promised to not get attached to anyone since Madison, but . . . but Issa . . ." He glanced behind him at the Angel that huddled on the couch, her eyes glued onto the TV and a slightly amused smile on her face. That smile masked the pain . . . the pain that only he could stop. He sighed and turned back to Dean. "But Issa needs me Dean. I'm not about to let her die because of some stupid Angel rule!" Dean groaned and rolled his eyes.

"You're making a mistake Sam!" He told him ardently, his hand moving to clutch his younger brother's arms. "I swear to God that you will regret this! Nothing about Heaven and the Angel are black and white. There is so much gray intermingled in there that it's amazing they can even keep things straight! God had alternative motives for this one, I can feel it in my bones and I . . . I don't want you getting mixed up in it!" Sam shook his head.

"Dean, she's not what you think! She's as scared as we are. Who are we to condemn her when I have something I can do about it?" He asked, and Dean shook his head.

"Just promise me something, Sam . . ." He asked, and Sam nodded.

"Okay . . . what is it?" Dean shook his head.

"Don't fuck her." Sam gazed at him in confusion.

"Um, normally I wouldn't ask but . . . _why_?" Dean shook his head and closed his eyes.

"Don't-don't question me, Sam! Just . . . promise me you won't fuck her! Sleeping with her will only make things worse, I promise!" Sam nodded and swallowed heavily, his hands moving to burrow deeply in the front pockets of his jeans.

"Okay Dean . . . I promise I won't sleep with her." Dean nodded, although his gaze remained skeptical. He knew his younger brother, and when Sam got attached, Sam _got attached, _and sex wasn't far off.

He just hoped this Angel wasn't like the other ones who broke Sam's heart. If she broke Sam's heart like all the other's did . . . then he would break her.


	6. Chapter 5

**Okay, I lied. The tissue-crying chapter is _next _chapter, sorry. LOL. I just figured that if I combined the teary chapter with this chapter, it would just be one huge chapter and I didn't want to deal with that, so, I kinda split it up into two parts. So, just to clarify, _next _chapter is the teary-sob-your-eyes-out chapter as well as a lemon chapter ;) (give ya three guesses on who its between and the first two don't count :)). **

**Thanks for the misunderstanding :)**

**Nagiana**

* * *

><p><em><em>"Okay, here's what I found . . . random fires have been popping up in metropolitan areas of Springfield. A child named Jaime Donalds is always at the scenes and authorities think that he may be a little arsonist." Dean told them and Issa gazed at him in curiosity as she leaned forward in the backseat of the car to gaze at him. Sam was going through the file of newspaper clippings and police reports that Dean had been collecting, and didn't notice when Issa placed her hand on his shoulder. He was long used to her touching him for warmth now, and he shifted over a few centimeters to make it easier for her. Dean noticed and pursed his lips again, although he listened to her question.

"You don't think he's an arsonist?" Dean shook his head.

"No. The kid has always been _inside _of the buildings as they burn. Arsonists most commonly start fires _outside _of the buildings, to better watch their handiwork. Something about this kid always having to be rescued from the burning buildings, sobbing his eyes out, tells me there's something deeper about this case." Sam glanced at his brother.

"Could it be a fire spirit haunting him?" He asked, and Dean shrugged.

"I don't know. I made a badge for Issa, so we're going to the Donalds house when we get there to talk to Jaime and his mother as private investigators signed to the case. Does that bother you, Issa?" He asked her, and Issa shrugged.

"Not really. Have you forgotten how I got here? Besides, I want to figure out what is going on before this kid gets really hurt." She told them, and Sam smiled slightly in triumph as Dean shook his head and turned his eyes back onto the road.

"I told you she wouldn't be a party-pooper, Dean." He told him and Dean shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"I didn't say she would be a party-pooper, I only meant that maybe she wouldn't want to do something like this because she's an -"

"Angel?" Issa completed the sentence for him. She scoffed. "Come on, Dean, we Angels aren't as big on rules as mortals think. We were mortals ourselves once, you know." Sam lifted his head up and glanced at her.

"You were a mortal once?" He asked her in interest, and Issa nodded.

"Every century, Angels are given the choice to stay an Angel or become a mortal for one lifespan, no catches. Me and Michael decided to do it one time and were reborn as the bastard son and daughter of a corrupt, greedy Pope. You do the rest of the math to figure out who we were." Sam glanced back at her in shock.

"You were -!"

Issa nodded. "Yep; Michael did a pretty impressive Cesaire and I was good at Lucrezia. I didn't like the blonde hair though . . . I prefer being a brunette." Dean rolled his eyes as he turned them back onto Sam.

"Can we _please_ get back onto the discussion on hand?" He demanded and Sam shook his head as Issa chuckled. Dean shook his head as he leaned on one hand on the door, trying vainly to massage away the headache that threatened to splatter his brains into smithereens.

"Whatever it is, we better find out fast, before something else happens!" He spoke tiredly, testily, and Sam nodded.

"Dean's right; we should. How much longer until we get to Springfield?" Dean shrugged.

"Twenty – thirty minutes at the max," He grinned. "I drank a Monster as we were walking out the door and _man_ do I have a lead foot right now! Hell, we might get there in ten!" Sam grinned back as Issa groaned and fell back in the backseat.

"Thank God I can't die." She murmured to herself and Dean laughed.

"Oh darlin', in this line of profession, anyone can die."

Issa didn't see the look of death that Sam shot Dean, nor the one of fake innocence that Dean shot his brother back.

* * *

><p>The house that Dean had pulled up in front of had been the atypical suburban home. It had a stark white frame and an immaculate black shingled roof with the entire house built in the traditional Tudor style. This was definitely the kind of home you typically wouldn't find a future arsonist growing up in.<p>

Sam echoed the skepticism littering the air. "Dean, are you sure this is the Donalds residence?" He asked, and Dean pointed to the mailbox, where the word 'Donalds' was written in big, black bold letters.

"Mailboxes don't lie." He spoke and Issa nodded.

"Mailboxes don't lie . . . but the people who own them do." She returned and Sam held back laughter at the look of daggers that Dean shot the Angel. She smiled back innocently, and Dean rolled his eyes as he opened the car door.

"Whatever, let's just get this over with." He spoke tersely and Sam nodded as he too got out of the car, holding the door open until Issa got out. All three of them were dressed in the atypical wardrobe of a private investigator; suits, ties and shiny dress shoes – heels for Issa. They even carried official police badges. Issa wanted to ask Dean where he got her uniform, but then again, was kind of afraid to know.

Dean led the way up to the door, where a fall wreath was hanging, pretty as a painting, and rapped on the door. There was no answer a few minutes later, and Dean shrugged. Sam tried this time, rapping harder on the door and Issa shrugged this time.

"They're home . . . I can feel them." She told them and Dean looked back at her, his brows furrowing in slight confusion at her words.

"What do you mean?" Issa shrugged.

"An Angel can sense the nearest innocent residing in a home; it makes it easier for us to help guide them on the path of piety. I can sense them . . . Jaime and his mother . . . they are . . . in the living room." She said after a moment of concentration and Dean turned back to Sam.

"I take that back, Sam . . . if she's right, I say we keep her!" He told him, grinning, and Issa rolled her eyes as she stepped forward and tried the doorknob. It was unlocked, and the door swung open without a creak. No sound came from within the house, it was eerily silent, and the three people gave each other looks.

"Do . . . houses normally sound this quiet whenever you enter them?" Issa asked hesitantly, and Sam shook his head.

"Not normally . . ." He answered as he entered the house; his senses peaked for the slightest movement, the slightest sound. Issa entered next and then Dean was last.

"Where's the living room Issa?" Sam asked, and Issa closed her eyes for a moment.

"Go down this hallway and then turn a . . . left. The living room should be the room we enter upon turning." Sam nodded as they continued hesitantly on their way, their hearts beating faster and faster as they neared that dreaded left turn.

As they drew nearer and nearer to the left turn, a sound steadily filled their ears. It sounded like many bees buzzing in unison around a fixed point, and they all shared confused looks. Sam kept moving, however, and when they turned the corner they froze, stunned and unmoving at what they saw. A little boy (Jaime, they presumed) was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the living room, his hands engulfed in flames which grew bigger and bigger until they were entirely engulfing the little boy.

Lying on the floor next to the little boy, skin charred and cracked, was what they presumed was Jaime's mother . . . still breathing.

Issa was the first to move. She shoved Sam in the direction of the phone and told him to hurry up and call 911. He nodded quickly as he practically jumped to the phone. She pushed Dean over to Jaime's mother and ordered him to quickly – but gently – move her away from the flame-engulfed Jaime. Dean proceeded to gaze at her like she had two heads.

"She's . . . she's _burned_!" He spoke and Issa rolled her eyes as she shook her head.

"Then keep her there and make sure no other flames leap onto her! I'll handle Jaime!" She then turned her attention onto Jaime, who was gazing at her in fear.

"Please . . . I don't know how to stop!" He begged her, his voice slightly muffled from the flames licking and leaping around him. Issa's eyebrows furrowed in slight confusion as she noted that the flames were having no apparent effect on him. His skin was still smooth and pale, not at all cracked and bubbling like his mother's. What was _wrong _with this kid?

Issa held out a hand to him and he gazed at it in fear for a moment before he adamantly shook his head. "No . . . Issa, don't!" Dean told her firmly, his eyes unable to break away from Issa's hand outstretching itself to the burning child. He glanced back. Sam was still on the phone, explaining the situation to the police and begging them to hurry. Issa kept her eyes on the child's all the while, her expression one of softness and kindness.

"Don't worry, I can make the flames go away, I promise. Just . . . take my hand . . ."

Dean's eyes widened when he realized what she was about to do. If Angels sought warmth and drew it into their bodies, then why couldn't they do the same thing with fire?

The child gazed at her hand in fear as he adamantly shook his head again. "No! No, I'll hurt you! I'll hurt you like I did mommy! Just . . . just go away!" He told her and Issa shook her head.

"I can't go away, Jaime. You have to trust me . . . I'm uh . . . well, I'm an Angel." She told him and Jaime's eyes grew wide.

"You're a . . . _Angel?_" Issa shook her head.

"Yes, I am, Jaime. I can help you control this, but you _have _to grab my hand.It's the only way that I can help you!" Jaime nodded and hesitantly leaned forward, where his small, child-like hand slipped into her. Dean watched, open-mouthed with shock, as the flames left the child and _slid _into Issa. She gasped in slight pain as the flames disappeared into the skin of her arm, but continued to hold the child's hand nonetheless. When all the flames were gone, Jaime let out a sigh of relief and collapsed, exhausted, into Issa's arms. She hugged him close and sucked in a harsh breath at the warmth of the child. It was ten times the warmth any mortal possessed, and she looked back at Dean and Sam, who continued to gaze at her in open-mouthed shock. Issa pursed her lips as they heard ambulances in the distance.

"He's a Firestarter, guys . . ." She told them. "He did start the fires . . . but it was all _unintentional_!" Sam and Dean sighed.

"Fuck." They muttered at the same time.


	7. Chapter 6

**Introducing the long, tear-jerker chapter that I promised that is also dedicated to one of my most ardent fans, Mali Bear's Buddy, for the awesome reviews and inspiration that I have been recieving. Thank you a lot, I luv ya! :)**

**By the way, sorry for semi-lame ending. Try not to let it happen again LOL**

**Enjoy, and again, thank you Mali!**

**- Nagiana**

* * *

><p>"Issa, are you insane?"<p>

"You could have gotten yourself hurt, or killed!"

Issa grinned and laughed as she turned away from the ambulance that was loading Jaime, and turned to face Sam and Dean, who both held looks of intense rage on their face. She held up her hands. "Hey, if it's any comfort, I _knew _that was going to happen!" She told them, and Sam's expression softened as he stepped closer.

"That's just the thing, Issa . . . you _didn't _know, did you?" Issa gazed at him for a moment, at the look of worry and fear he held in his eyes and stepped closer to him, where she slid her hand across his arm. The fire she took into her body made it almost insufferable to touch _anyone_. Hell, she was sweating!

Her eyes flickered over to Dean, who gazed at her with an expressionless face before he jumped into speaking,

"I guess . . . I guess I was wrong about you." He admitted, and Sam turned to face his brother, a look of shock on his face.

"Wait a minute . . . is Dean _actually _apologizing?" Dean nodded and rolled his eyes as he folded his arms in front of his chest.

"Yeah, I guess, but don't look into it too much. I still don't trust you." He told her and Issa rolled her eyes.

"I suppose that will have to do. However, what are we going to do about Jaime?" She asked as the three of them turned to watch the two ambulances speed off down the road. Jaime's mother – Tracii – looked bad. Her condition was critical and the paramedics said that it would be a miracle if she managed to get to the ER alive. Jaime was fine, however. He was shaking like a leaf and looked like he would have some serious psychiatric help in his future, but physically, he was fine.

Sam shook his head. "We've never dealt with a Firestarter before . . . are they really rare?" He asked, and Issa nodded.

"Only a handful of humans in history have ever been labeled full-blown Firestarters," She shrugged. "I'm clueless as to how to help him, really. Rarely do Firestarters _ever_ fully control their powers. Normally, in the past, they were hunted down, labeled as witches and then put to death. Now . . . now some of them are labeled as arsonists, thrown in jail and left to rot." Dean shook his head.

"We can't let that happen to Jaime." He spoke firmly, but Issa gazed at him in incredulity.

"Then what do we do, Dean? Taking him with us would be more of a red-tape problem than a physical hazard!" Dean shook his head and shrugged.

"We watch him. Maybe what you did, Issa, by taking the fire into yourself . . . maybe that cured him somehow. If he doesn't start anything again, then our case is cleared. If not, then . . . we'll burn that bridge when the time comes." He told them before motioning to the car. "Now come on, we have ambulances to fallow."

* * *

><p>The fire started quite suddenly. Sam and Issa had been by the coke machine, trying vainly to get three cokes when Dean came running to tell them that a fire had started . . . in Jaime's room and that none of the doctors or nurses couldn't get to him. A beam above the door had crashed down, barring them entrance. Issa opened her mouth to say something as she moved to run in the direction of the child's hospital room, but Sam picked her up from being crushed by th amount of security guards that were ushering them through the doors of the hospital to wait outside. All three of them watched in horror as the flames and smoke spread, as patients were steadily wheeled, coughing and black with soot, out of the hospital, and as siren-running police cars, firetrucks and ambulances from nearby hospitals, sped into the parking lot. Issa shook her head.<p>

"How did it start Dean?" She asked, and Dean shrugged helplessly, their eyes still glued onto the fiery carnage set before them. Firefighters got into their gear quickly and were running into the burning hospital to retrieve the patients and employees that were trapped inside.

"I don't know! One minute, I was standing in front of the window looking into his room, watching a nurse feed him an IV, I turn around to see what time it was and when I turn around again; I see the room on fire and spreading!" Sam shook his head.

"This fire is different, guys . . . it's almost as if he _wants _to die!" He told her, and Issa nodded in agreement.

"Not on my watch!" Before Dean or Sam could react, Issa burst forward like a Thoroughbred out of the starting gate and was running straight for the burning doors of the hospital.

"_Issa_! Issa, what the fuck are you doing!" Sam and Dean roared at her, both of them jumping in rage and fear, and Issa waved a hand at them over her shoulder.

"Don't worry about me! I have a plan!" She called and Dean shook his head, his lips pursing in rage.

"That's what they _always _say!" He spit out through gritted teeth. Sam didn't say anything. He could only stand there, helpless and dumbfounded, as he watched his Angel run into the smoldering ruins of the hospital.

Sam let out a frustrated groan and buried his face in his hands for a moment before he put them down and ran after her into the hospital. Dean's eyes grew wide as he watched Sam run after her, and he roared Sam's name as his younger brother disappeared in a hail of sparks and ash as the door collapsed behind him.

Dean never remembered cussing in so many different languages in his life.

* * *

><p>The heat was sweltering . . . it was stifling. Issa was reminded keenly of Hell, and remembered looking around a couple of times, expecting to see the nine circles spread out before her, with Lucifer sitting in the center, taking court with all traitors from Judas to Brutus. She felt something whisper her name, but she shook it off as she ducked underneath a beam and continued on her running way.<p>

She stumbled on a beam as it cracked underneath her, her arms flying to protect her eyes and face as fiery sparks and smoke was thrown up in her face and when they dissolved, she found that her foot was stuck. It was caught between two floorboards and as if things couldn't get any worse, she felt a crunching, groaning sound from above her and she realized, with a sinking in the pit of her stomach, that the ceiling was about to give out above her. She hunched down and closed her eyes as the ceiling gave out, but the heaviness of the board never hit her. It crashed to the place where she had been standing mere moments before. She looked up, stunned, seeing the heavily breathing Sam kneeling beside her, his eyes scanning the room for clues having to do with piecing together a 'Plan B' in his mind.

"S-Sam . . .?" Issa asked him, stunned, as her hand moved to go cup his cheek. Sam grinned at her as he took her hand and pulled her to her feet.

"I told you I wouldn't let you fall ever again . . . well this is one of those times. Now, where are Jaime's rooms?" He asked, and Issa looked around her.

"Over here! Hurry Sam, before it's too late!" She urged him as they carefully picked their way over the burning rubble and crashing beams to a nearby room. Sure enough, through the melting glass, they saw Jaime sitting on his bed, looking just as scared as he had when they found him the first place, if not more scared.

"Jaime!" Issa yelled over the roaring flames, and Jaime's eyes immediately turned onto Issa, where a look of intense relief came to accompany those of intense fear and pain.

"Miss. Angel, you're here! Oh I'm so happy you're here!" He called back, tears glistening down his cheeks, and Issa opened her mouth to say something to Sam, but he beat her to the punch. He was already looking for a way to get into the room and found one. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to a part of the wall that had partially caved in, leaving a small space for them to crawl into the room.

"Jaime, are you alright?" Issa asked him, and Jaime shook his head as he moved aside his arms. A bright pool of blood was spreading over his stomach, and the cause of that stomach was a shard of glass. Issa's eyes grew wide with horror as she looked at him.

"What happened?" Same shrugged.

"Mirror or the wall window probably exploded with the force of something and the glass flew over to him. But we can't worry about that now. We need to get him out of here!" He told them and Issa nodded in agreement as Sam gently picked the little boy up in his arms, hugging him as close as he could. "Okay, let's get out of here -"

Sam was interrupted, however, by another giant groan. The wall they had just used to crawl in, had now fully collapsed in a pile of fierily burning beams and melting glass and plastic hot enough to weld together car steel. Sam and Issa looked at each other in horror.

"What do we do?" He asked, and Issa pursed her lips as she turned around and grabbed at Sam.

"Run to the window."

At first, Sam thought she had said something else entirely. "W-what did you say?" Issa nodded.

"You heard me. Run to the window, I have a plan." She told him and Sam opened his mouth to say something, but before he could say anything, Issa already had been turned around and was pushing him to the window. It had miraculously not broken yet and when they crashed through it, Sam bent his head and hugged Jaime as close to him as he could.

Sam remembered falling . . . the asphalt parking lot rushing at him with the speed of a galloping Thoroughbred, but it never hit. Instead, he felt himself rising with the currents of the wind, of feeling weightless. He looked around him, seeing the top of the burning hospital and then above him. Issa had him in her arms and above her, beat strong black wings . . . _feathered _wings.

"Issa, you're . . ." He began, and Issa nodded.

"I know Sam. Brace yourself!" She told him and Sam did as they landed on the pavement a moment later, Sam's knees buckling underneath him as they got used to being on firm, unshaking ground again. He placed Jaime on the pavement in front of him, where he immediately started coughing the soot and smoke from his lungs, registering Issa landing silently behind him, her wings moving to fold back against her to disappear completely.

He heard the cacophony of shoes beating against the pavement towards them before he found himself swept up in a back-breaking hug. "Oh thank God you two are okay!" Dean's voice came crashing into his head as he let his brother go, Sam immediately descending into another fit of coughing again.

Dean and Sam grinned at each other before they embraced again, tightly. "How was it? Was it exciting?" Dean asked him, and Sam shook his head as he thumped his chest, trying his damndest to get all that smoke and soot out.

"It was . . . it was somethin' . . ." He spoke and the two of them turned to face Issa, but froze when they saw her sitting there on the asphalt, Jaime's body being cradled in her arms. "_In pater noster diligimus . . ." _She murmured, and Sam slapped Dean on the chest.

"W-what's she saying?" He asked and Dean furrowed his eyebrows in concentration as he translated.

"In Our Father we love . . ."

"_Lorem sana puerum istum . . ."_

"Please heal this child . . ."

The Latin words directed towards God, soon became like a prayer. Her hands were engulfed in a yellow-white glow over his wound, signifying that she was trying to heal him, yet nothing happened. Every time those words left Issa's mouth and the bloody spot on Jaime's hospital gown continued to grow underneath her glowing hands, they became more fervent, the tears and sobs soon becoming more heavy and heart-wrenching. The two brothers watched, in silence, as Issa clutched at the little boy, moved his hair out of his face and fervently repeated the words over and over again, rocking with her sobs.

When it was evident he was dead, Issa's cries became fully-fledged sobs. Removed her hand from his wound, the healing light disappeared and she bent over Jaime's body and sobbed until it was painful. By that time, paramedics and firefighters were rushing over to them; policemen not far behind talking on their walkie-talkies and pointing at . . . Dean.

Dean grabbed at Sam's arm. "Sammy, we have to go! Those policemen don't exactly look friendly . . ." He hissed, and Sam glanced back at them before he ran over to Issa. He gently pulled at her arm and Issa shook her head, refusing to budge. Sam kneeled down and cupped her face in his hands, forcing her to look at him.

"I promised you . . . I would never let you fall, didn't I?" He asked her shakily, and Issa swallowed heavily and nodded.

"Yes, but -"

She was silenced by Sam's lips gently touching hers. They kissed for a moment before he broke apart, the both of them clutching at each other tightly, not willing to let the other go. "Then for the love of God, let me catch you now!" He murmured to her. "Because we have _got to go_!"

Issa turned around, saw the policemen, firefighters and paramedics rushing towards and nodded in agreement, her eyes lingering on Jaime's lifeless body.

"I tried so hard to save him, Sam . . ." She spoke tearfully, and Sam nodded as he scooped her up in his arms and took off at a run after Dean, who was not willing to be caught by the police again after how hard it was to escape last time.

"I know Issa, I know . . ." He murmured back and she buried her face in his chest, where the fresh tears came, as urgently and as heavily as a waterfall.

"I should have known that I couldn't save them all! How _stupid _I was!" She continued and Sam shook his head.

"You can't save them all Issa . . . but that just making saving the ones you can, so much sweeter."

Issa knew he was talking about her.

* * *

><p>Issa wiped the steam off of the bathroom mirror with one hand and gazed at herself in the mirror. Exhaustion and the death of Jaime had taken a toll on her pallor and her mind, leaving her mentally exhausted and empty. The warmth from the fires had long since left her body, leaving her feeling like a husk of her former self. Not even touching Sam anymore brought any warmth.<p>

_So this is what the humans call depression_ . . . She thought listlessly as she grabbed another towel and started drying her hair. Even her eyes, which had always been so bright, had become dull and lifeless things, causing her nothing but pain whenever she looked at Sam or Dean . . . Sam especially.

She barely heard the knock on her door, and sighed as she walked into the bedroom and opened it. Sam stood on the threshold, an apologetic smile on his face. "Hi . . . just wanted to see how you were doing . . ." Issa shrugged.

"Fine . . . I'm doing fine, I guess . . ." She spoke quietly and Sam grimaced at the sight of her. She hadn't been eating. She still had her curves, but he could see her collarbone and her high cheekbones. She was still remarkably beautiful, but he hated seeing her so unhealthy all the same.

He sighed and shook his head. It was raining behind him, the pitter-patter of the raindrops on the pavement creating a soothing rhythm. His fingers moved through his hair and Issa turned her eyes back onto his. "Issa . . . I'm sorry about Jaime. I know how much you wanted to save him . . . he shouldn't have died . . . we should have been more vigilant." Issa looked down and shook her head.

"I can't save everyone . . . I don't know why I tried." She spoke and Sam shook his head as he moved closer to her, where he gently moved her head up so that he could gaze into her eyes.

"You tried because – for however long you knew that little boy – you loved him, and even though you knew things would probably not end well," He told her. "I would have done the same for you, no matter how much of a lost cause it would have been." Sam could see the ghosts of tears in her eyes as she shook her head.

"I can't . . . I don't know what's wrong with me, Sam!" She told him, tears falling down her face. "I can't feel warmth anymore . . . not from you, not from _anyone_!" She shook her head. "I can't feel any warmth from you and . . . and . . . I can't _stand it_!" She fell into his arms then, sobbing and she hardly noticed when he gently moved her back into the hotel room, the door closing behind him.

She hardly noticed when Sam brought her to him roughly and pressed his lips to hers in another searing kiss. "Why did I do it, Sam? Why did I try to save him, even though I knew it wouldn't end well?" Sam shook his head as he nuzzled her.

"Love . . . because you wanted to . . ." He murmured when he broke apart from her, his strong arm wrapped around her waist, keeping her pinned against him with no hope of escape. He buried his face in her hair again and he breathed in deeply the scent as he felt her fingers slide through his hair, holding him close.

"I want . . . I don't know if I can feel warmth again; Hell, maybe this is a sign that I'm destined for Purgatory soon, but I want . . . one last chance to feel your warmth if possible, to know that I am loved and wanted. I want you, Sam!" Issa hugged him close, tears still falling freely down her cheeks.

Sam shuddered as she pressed her mouth to his, kissing him with every drop of ardor in her body and she let out a moan as he gently, slowly, drew her towel down from her body, leaving her completely naked before his roving gaze. They rid him of his clothes in a similar fashion, the outermost molecules of their lips touching, their breathing ragged and pretty soon, both of them were as naked as the day they were born.

Issa's view of the world was suddenly topsy-turvy and she realized that the problem was that she that was now lying on her back on the cool, slightly scratchy bedclothes of her hotel bed and that Sam was now lying above her. Issa couldn't see his face, for it was shrouded in the early evening shadow streaming in through the windows, however, she knew he was probably being as solemn as she was.

Sam's gentle caresses and soft kisses were like little flowers of warmth blooming over her skin. It didn't warm her deep inside like they had in the past, but Hell, it was a start. Her head was so misted up with the realization of the things he was about to do to her now, that she couldn't even think straight! The flowers of warmth distracted her, made her stay down in the mortal realm with Sam . . . with the man she loved.

The heavy weight that was Sam Winchester – which had been pressing upon her for quite a few minutes now – slowly, rose off of her so that he could better shift his position on top of her. It was a few seconds before he returned again, but when he did, he leaned over her and placed sizzling kisses all down her body. With an expertise that Gabriel never had, Sam traced his callused hands carefully, teasingly over her nude body, knowing exactly how to torture her. A trembling quake wracked her body, causing her skin to ripple from the inside out.

Yes, yes, she was his, only his. Oh God help her, she couldn't think when he was with her like this, could only feel and only react, as if she were swept away by a whirlwind of emotion. And that aching emptiness inside her, that small secret warmth that she'd thought long since being chained by the coldness, slowly began to come back to life underneath his heated and familiar touch.

Without wasting another second, Sam lay his body down completely on top of hers. He enveloped her entirely underneath him and braced himself with his forearms on either side of her head. Then, with one languid, smooth thrust, he was inside of her completely. Issa let out a gasp as warmth flooded her being with the ferocity of lava. His heat warmed her from the inside out now, filled her, made every inch of her tingle.

He waited a moment before removing himself from her with almost as much leisure as his entrance. He slammed himself into her again, slightly faster this time, only to pull out seconds later, quickly establishing a rhythm. Then, Sam readjusted himself, leaning solely on one arm now. His right hand began to wander over Issa's exposed physique, teasing and bringing her closer to the edge.

Issa was in a stupor. The man atop her was providing her with so many stimuli and warmth that it was hard not to plunge over the edge. She closed her eyes and tried desperately to eradicate the dense fog that was insisting on clouding her mind. Was this how the Fallen Angels felt when they finally slept with the one who they Bonded to? This all-over warmth that was so encompassing, so magnificent? When she opened her eyes again, she noticed for the first time how perfectly silhouetted Sam was above her. The slight sun through the rain pattering outside the windows illuminated his Godly form above her, while leaving so much to the imagination at the same time.

Sam leaned forward suddenly and scooped her up in his giant arms, elevating her off the rumpled bed slightly, just enough to make himself slide in deeper.

Issa unconsciously wrapped her slim limbs around his body as he pumped her rapidly now, his breath leaving his lungs in short ragged gasps. Biting her bottom lip, she leaned back on the bed with one arm behind her and met him, thrust for thrust, harder and harder, faster and faster until they were both breathless with the desire that coursed through their bodies, her legs wrapping around his waist to give her the perfect amount of leverage and making him sink himself further into her, up to the hilt now.

Issa was completely gone by now, her sweat soaked body mingling with his in a fervent battle for release, and through heavy, lust-filled eyes, she saw Sam with his head thrown back, his God-like body soaked with sweat as he pistoned into her. He was so primal, so-so . . . so _mortal_.

He was _nothing _like Gabriel.

And Issa found that she liked that better. That she liked _Sam _better.

Issa was first; she entwined the hand supporting her on the bed in the clothe of the coverlet and arched her back deliciously, the other hand moving to clutch his neck, where she brought him down to kiss her. She released around him and as she did so, she drug Sam over the metaphoric edge with her into an abyss of blinding white ecstasy. A chorus of screaming moans, utterances of each other's names and incoherent words escaped from the moist pile of mangled limbs that lay in the center of the bed now, their chests heaving, neither knowing which limb belonged to whom.

As the sexual high wore off and the euphoria came to a close, Sam pulled out of Issa, disentangled himself from her and took a relaxed position next to her, pulling her snugly into his arms. Thaia lay on her back; Sam lay on his side beside her, being supported on his elbow, his free arm wrapping around to bring her closer to him. Not another sound was made as the two watched the sky turn from a rainy blue saturated with the bright yellow rays of the sun, to a pale pink through the windows that signified dusk. They watched as the birds flitted through the sky to return back to their nests before nightfall, and when Issa smiled a small smile and shifted to make herself more comfortable, he lay back on the bed and allowed Issa to lay her head on his chest.

Sam let out a small smile as well and allowed her to. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I love you Issa . . ." He whispered to her and Issa smiled back as she turned her gazed up to Sam's.

"You didn't let me fall . . ." She murmured and Sam gazed at her curiosity.

"I said I wouldn't." Issa smiled again as she kissed him gently, sweetly.

"I love you too Sam . . . I think I'm going to stay here . . ." Sam grinned and laughed.

"You better . . . because I don't think I can deal with Dean alone anymore." The both of them laughed at his joke as they fell slowly asleep, both of them dead to the world.


	8. Chapter 7

**Okay, just to warn you guys now, I'm kinda starting to hit a writer's block with this story and I HATE it! I've been on a roll so far and I really don't wanna end, so if any of you guys have an idea or would like to see the story go down a path you think would be interesting, feel free to PM your ideas. I love collaborating with my fans and of course, your ideas will be given a shout-out in my Author's Notes at the beginning of the chapters. The only part of this chapter I even remotely am hapy with is Gabriel/God's POV at the end of the chapter and that's because I think I did a pretty good job of depicting Gabriel's steady descent into maniac-like jealousy :)**

**And I'm sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but after the 4,597 words of the last one, I kinda wanted to make a shorter one this time. You know, give you guy's a break of sorts :)**

* * *

><p>He was so peaceful when he slept . . . like he had no problems in the world.<p>

Issa smiled a small smile as she gently moved a lock of Sam's brown hair out of his face. A gentle kiss to his lips woke him up, and he woke up grinning. He stretched as Issa sat up, the covers moving to pool around her waist. Her black hair was as tousled as the sheets were and Sam allowed two fingers to move up and down her back gently as he lay there gazing at her.

"Am I in Heaven?" He asked, and Issa furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she turned to gaze at him.

"What do you mean?" Sam shrugged.

"It's a simple question . . . am I in Heaven?" He grinned. "Cause I will never get used to waking up in the morning and seeing such a beautiful Angel beside me."

Issa couldn't help but break out in peals of laughter as she grabbed her pillow laying behind her, where she socked it at him. Sam expertly caught it in mid-air and set it gently aside before he pulled her into his arms, his lips moving to her neck. Her laughter faded, only to be replaced with a grin.

"I take it you're feeling better?" He asked her, and Issa shrugged.

"You certainly helped last night. . ." She replied back quietly, grinning, and Sam did the same as he threw the covers aside. Standing naked, he moved to retrieve his pants where he yanked them on. Issa sighed as she gazed at him.

"Dean can't take care of himself?" She asked, and Sam rolled his eyes.

"Oh honey, without me, Dean couldn't survive!" He spoke somewhat bitterly as he pulled on his shirt and retrieved his shoes. He sat down on the bed and was pulling on his shoes when Issa came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her lips connecting with the spot above his pulse point, and Sam stopped, a grin twitching at the corners of his mouth.

"I say he can survive for a day . . ." She whispered. "Come back to bed . . ."

Sam had never been so seriously tempted in his life.

"If I don't go back, Dean's gonna come looking . . . and we both know whose hotel room door he's gonna be banging on . . . someone who isn't exactly his favorite person in the world." He told her, and Issa bit her bottom lip as she bit at his earlobe.

"You know you want to Sam . . ." She murmured and this time, Sam felt something holding him from leaving the room. It was something primal, something primordial. It was more than just the lustful thought of he was going to get laid . . . it was almost as if he left, he would . . . something bad would happen. He turned his head to gaze at her.

"What does being Bonded feel like?" He asked her quietly, and Issa shrugged.

"You feel like you can never leave that person's side without feeling like something bad will happen. You don't _want _to leave that person's side. It's primal, its-its . . ." She trailed off when she saw a look in Sam's eyes. She recoiled slightly, a look of stunned shock appearing on her face.

"Sam, did you . . . did we . . . did we finish Bonding?" She asked, and Sam shrugged, his thoughts immediately moving to Dean's warning words a couple of days ago. Was he warning Sam about how sleeping with a Falling Angel completed the Bonding process? Were he and Issa . . . could they ever be apart now?

But most of all . . . as Sam turned around and locked his lips with Issa's, his body and mind reveling in the feeling of her hands pulling off his clothes, her nails scraping against his head as she threaded her fingers through his hair, the smoothness of her legs moving up to wrap around his waist, he realized that he didn't care. He realized that he didn't want to be with anyone else . . . that he was Issa's and that Issa was his.

* * *

><p><em>He slept with her . . . why else would he not be back by now?<em>

Dean paced the hotel room floor, his hands moving to run through his short, close-cropped brown hair every now and then. He hadn't slept since Sam left, saying that he was going to go check on Issa, and he had yet to return. Worst case scenarios kept popping into his head, but Dean knew the truth . . . Sam was with _her._

His teeth gritted at the thought of Issa. He would be lying if he said he didn't feel attraction to the beautiful, wonderfully enticing Fallen Angel, but then again, she had always been labeled as Sam's . . . even from the beginning, and like it as not, Dean never encroached on his brother's territory . . . _never._

It had been Sam who had reached her first when they found her in the smoking crater. It had been Sam she had reached out to as she blacked out, as the wings folded to disappear against her back. It had been Sam who had carried her to the car, who had held her on their way to the nearest hotel. Sam, as the less sexually driven of the two brothers, had been the one to clothe her, to make sure she was fine and still living.

Sam had been the first person she had touched . . . the first person to have ever given her warmth, so it was _his_ fault. If Dean had wanted her like his heart told him he wanted her, he should have been the one who had reached her first, not Sam. He should have been the first one to warm her . . . not Sam.

Dean was brought out of his thoughts as the door to the room opened, Sam entering seconds later. Dean gazed at him, an indiscernible expression in his eyes. "Where were you?"

Sam froze for a moment, giving Dean all the incentive he needed to make a judgment. He grinned and laughed, his fingers moving through his hair again.

"You slept with her, didn't you?" He asked, and Sam shrugged.

"What if I did?"

"You slept with her after I told you not to!"

"_What_ . . . if I did?" Sam asked him again before he grinned and held out his arms. "For God's sake Dean, I'm not a fuckin' kid anymore! You cannot possibly think you can tell me what to do now!"

"You're my brother -"

"And I'm also an adult!" Sam interrupted him, their voices rising in order to be heard over the other one. "And who I sleep with is my business -"

Sam stopped talking, a look of dawning recognition appearing on his face. A grin spread across Sam's face then and Dean momentarily blanched. "You . . . your jealous, aren't you!" He asked, and Dean scoffed.

"What, are you shitting me? Of course I'm not jealous! I don't even like her! You know that!" He spoke and Sam shook his head.

"No . . . no I don't Dean. I can't believe I didn't see it until now! Did you warn me against sleeping with her because you knew once I did, she was mine and there was nothing you could do about it from then on out?" Sam shook his head and grabbed the doorknob again. Dean's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he saw his brother open the hotel door.

"Sam, where are you going?" He asked, and Sam shrugged.

"I'm going back to Issa's . . . I don't want to be around a brother that lies to me."

Dean couldn't stop him from leaving. Actually, Sam was gone before Dean could say anything.

* * *

><p>"I want her back!"<p>

God sighed and closed his eyes as Gabriel flew into his office, his eyes bright with rage and hurt.

"You want who back, my son?"

"You know who! I want Issa back!" God shook his head.

"Gabriel, I can't -"

"Bullshit!" Gabriel roared. Tears were brimming in his eyes by now but he refused to show any weakness and held them back. "I want her back; you can bring her back! Your God, you can do anything you want!" Gabriel shook his head and looked down at the floor, his eyes swimming with even more tears. "She's slept with him, father! She told me she loved me, but she . . ." He trailed off and God nodded. He stood and moved over to the nearest window. He leaned on the frame and gazed out the clear panes at the Angels moving around outside.

"I told you Gabriel . . . I warned you that your relationship would never be. I warned you that something like this would happen." He told him and Gabriel shook his head.

"No . . . no you're wrong . . . Issa loves me, she wouldn't . . . she wouldn't do this!" God sighed and turned around, where he gazed at Gabriel with a look of pity on his old, wizened face.

"Why must you delude yourself, Gabriel?" He asked the Archangel, his voice pained. "Issa has moved on, she is happy -"

"_She was happy with me_!" Gabriel roared at him, successfully interrupting his father. "_I _was happy with her! She didn't _want _to go to Earth; she wanted to stay here with me!" Gabriel shook his head. "I want her back . . ."

God sighed and looked down at the floor. "Gabriel, what you are asking, will only serve your wants. Issa would despise you for taking her away from Samuel. Samuel would only grow bitterer and easily more drawn into the darkness. What you are asking of me -"

"I don't care what Issa wants! And I _certainly _don't care what fucking Sam thinks!" He interrupted God again, who sighed.

"Gabriel, I can't. I see how Issa is happier with Sam, I see how Sam has become more good because of her and I cannot do this to her. I'm sorry." God gave him one last lingering look full of pity before he left the room. Gabriel stood there for a moment, his body rigid with shock but when it dawned on him what God's decision had been, he felt something inside him crack. He sunk to his knees, the only picture in his head was the one of Issa gently – _lovingly_ – moving aside a lock of Sam's hair while he slept.

Issa never done that to him . . .

Issa had never clung to him like she clung to Sam when she hit her peak, like her very life depended on her clinging to him.

He had never felt so much jealously in his life and he prayed fervently for release from the sin, but deep in his heart he knew he would get her back.

He _knew _it.


	9. Chapter 8

***ducks into the room with a collander on head* Okay, please don't kill me cause I haven't updated in seemingly a million years, and I'm really sorry, but college has been hard lately and I haven't really gotten a chance to update any of my stories, really LOL. So, again, I'm really sorry, and come these next few weeks, I should be updating a lot more because college ends then and my mind won't be bogged down with stress and exhaustion, so I'll have time to write :)**

**Okay, so in this chapter - albeit briefly - one of my absolutely most favoritist characters makes an appearance in the beginning. I won't spoil it for you, but if your anything like me and absolutely fell in love with his wit and indelible charm, you'll probably be bouncing up and down in your seats when he magically pops up in the beginning :)**

**Okay, so read and enjoy and keep those reviews coming!**

**- Nagiana**

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><p>The Angel that had materialized in front of a shocked Issa, Sam and Dean in her hotel room later that afternoon was the last Angel Issa ever expected to see again.<p>

But then again, Balthazar had always been one of her best friends.

The hedonistic Angel grinned and held open his arms, which Issa immediately grinned back and rushed into them, where he folded her up into a warm embrace. His expression softened as he held her to him tightly. "I've missed you, lynx . . ." He whispered, and Issa smiled tearfully as she gently broke away from him and turned her eyes up to his.

"I've missed you too, Balthazar. I've missed everyone . . . even Raphael!" She spoke, and Balthazar chuckled at her words as he gently smoothed away a tear brimming at the corner of her eye with his thumb.

"Those are heavy words for a fellow Fallen Angel, Princess." He told her teasingly, and Issa laughed and punched him on the arm.

"That's easy for you to say! You live on more than heavy words now, from what I hear! What happened to the whole, 'Fallen Angels have to stick together, thing'?" Balthazar laughed.

"I will stick by _you_, Issa! Hell, when I heard that you had Fallen, I was the first to rush over here, as you can so clearly see . . ." He gestured to himself as if giving proof, before he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to him, where they turned to meet the Winchester brothers. "Now, I believe I have already met them, but to be polite, I think you should introduce us!" He spoke cheerily, both of the Fallen Angels keenly aware of the looks of slight jealously that appeared in the brothers' eyes, especially in Sam's. A look of curiosity appeared in Balthazar's eyes as he turned his gaze onto Sam. "Especially your new Lifemate." He spoke, and Issa turned her eyes onto Balthazar in surprise.

"You know about that?" She asked, and Balthazar laughed uproariously before he stopped and rolled his eyes.

"Do _I_ know that? Honey, _everyone _knows that! After Gabriel went berserk and turned all _weepy_ over how you had Bonded with someone other than him, it has been the talk of every dinner table, sowing circle and prostitution ring from Hell to Heaven and everywhere in-between!"

All three of them held looks of shock on their face. "I didn't know it was so well-talked about!" Issa spoke, somewhat bitterly, and Balthazar shrugged. He opened his mouth to speak, but Dean interrupted him with an outstretched hand.

"Whoa, whoa, wait! Heaven has a _prostitution _ring?" He asked in incredulity, and Balthazar shrugged again.

"Of course Heaven has a prostitution ring. Why do you think there aren't all that many rebellions? Angels have an outlet without all the messy, virulent diseases that you mortals can get, and God don't have to pay child support for multiple children. It all works out -" He stopped mid-sentence, and then turned to Issa, changing subject with tact speed. "Okay, I can't stay long, but I have come to warn you! Gabriel is more than weepy, he's _furious_! He's been petitioning God to get you back upstairs since the news has reached us of your Bonding with Sam, and needless to say, there's dissention in the ranks. Pretty soon, Thunderbutt is gonna cave and give Gabriel what he wants . . . which is _you_!"

Sam shook his head. "But wait . . . you said yourself, I and Issa are Bonded!" He spoke. "Issa can't be away from me for five seconds without needing my touch, much less be parted from me forever! Would God honestly want to kill his own child?" Balthazar arched an eyebrow at him in disbelief.

"The man that we are talking about sent his own misbegotten son to die on two planks of wood for a campaign that obviously did not work out like he had planned! Believe me, Sam - he doesn't care a whit for Issa _or_ Gabriel! All he cares about is that there won't be any more riots like those Lucifer had started. The scale of good and evil hangs in the balance," He shrugged then. "As for the Bonding part . . . he's God. He can do anything he wants, including reverse the rite of Bonding. How he does it, I'm not completely sure, but what I _do_ know, is that it is an extremely painful process and often leaves the Angel incapable of love ever again! They can't even feel minor love, like you would have for your car," He gestured to Dean. "Or the love I feel for my newly imported Egyptian cotton silk sheets!"

He – of course – referring to himself.

Sam and Issa exchanged looks of abject horror on their faces. Balthazar sighed and turned to Issa. "You know I would do anything to help you, my little lynx . . ." He spoke quietly, and Issa nodded.

"Yes, I do . . . Fallen Angels have to stick together, right?" Balthazar chuckled.

"That is true, but _friends _need to stick together, and how many centuries have we been friends?"

"Oh, let me see . . ." She thought for a moment. "We've been friends since the 5thcentury, right?"

Balthazar nodded and smiled comfortingly, his eyes soft as he gazed down at her. "Yes . . . we have been friends since the 5th century," He spoke quietly, almost as if he was marveling at the length of time with which they had been friends. Indeed, Castiel and Issa had been his longest friends, and his loyalty to them – especially Issa – was absolute. "But I don't know what I can do for this situation. Gabriel is . . . Gabriel is being difficult and God . . . God won't listen to anyone anymore."

"What does this mean?" She asked and Balthazar sighed.

"I don't know, Issa. No one knows what's going to happen in the upcoming months. Everything is just so . . . _tangled_! But, however this turns out, I think it would be prudent for you and Sam to spend as much time together as you possibly can. If Gabriel does indeed get his wish and God decides to bring you back upstairs, there will be nothing you can do about it. You know this." He told her slowly, his eyes boring into her and she reluctantly nodded.

"I know." She replied, quietly, nodding her head. "I know . . ." He turned his eyes onto Sam's, the blue depths of his eyes cold and fathomless.

"You take care of her, understand?" He told him coldly, and Sam nodded, his eyes growing wide with disbelief.

"Yeah, you uh . . . didn't have to tell me twice!" He spoke and Balthazar nodded slowly as he took Issa's hand and pressed the back of it to his lips.

"I'll try all I can to stave off Gabriel's pleadings, but I can't promise anything, you know that! If I were you, however, I'd try and get in touch with Castiel. He's much higher up on the food chain than I am." He advised, and Issa nodded.

"Yeah, I'll do that. Thanks, Balthazar." She spoke as they hugged tightly. He didn't stay long after that. Mainly, him and Issa chatted and caught up with each other, but eventually, he had to leave. He left in the blink of an eye, leaving the three of them standing there in an uncomfortable silence.

"Are you going to do it?" Dean asked her after a long pause, and Issa turned her eyes on to the oldest Winchester.

"You mean call for Castiel?"

He nodded and Issa shrugged. "I don't know. We . . . left on bad terms the last time we talked. I don't know if he'll help and even if he _does_ agree to help, I don't know if he would put his all into it . . . not like Balthazar will."

"Will . . . will God actually call you back up?" Sam asked her and Issa shrugged.

"Well . . . my Fallen status _was _supposed to be only temporary, but taking in the fact that we've Bonded . . . that might add some red tape to help us out." She spoke and she saw Dean purse his lips in irritation at Issa mentioning her and Sam's Bonding.

She shot Dean a look as she moved to stand in the middle of the room and turned her eyes heavenward. "Castiel . . .? Castiel, it's me, can you come down here for a minute?" She called slightly hesitantly, but when there was no answer, that look of hesitancy disappeared and she pursed her lips in slight irritation instead. "_Castiel_! Goddammit, Castiel, I'm sorry for telling Gabriel that you thought his black ass was fine – of course, I can't speak for Balthazar - but I _need you -_!"

She was interrupted by a bright light that flooded the room, causing the three of them to shield their eyes. The light soon disappeared, and the angel Castiel appeared before them in his customary body of Jimmy Novak. He glared at Issa with a look between slight hatred and embarrassment, not even bothering to say hello to Sam and Dean, who was standing their frozen, their eyes wide after hearing that Issa had pulled such a mean prank on Castiel.

"You apologize for that now, Issa?" He demanded angrily. "Do you _know _how long it took me to convince that fucking asshole that I am indeed, very much attracted to the opposite sex? And Balthazar – oh God, _Balthazar_! You're talking about someone who rubs shit in!" Issa smiled a small smile as held open her arms, although she had to physically restrain herself from bursting out into laughter.

"I said I was sorry!" She told him apologetically and Castiel's jaw hardened for a moment before he groaned out and hugged her tightly.

"I was worried about you, Issa! None of us knew you have Fallen until Gabriel started having his temper tantrum yesterday. Michael had told no one, neither did God . . . I was enraged when I heard!" He spoke, and Issa broke apart from him, her eyes wide.

"Michael – was he doing anything?" She asked, and Castiel slowly shook his head.

"No . . . he was going about his regular business, almost as if everything was normal." He spoke, and Issa felt her jaw get heavy and tears brim in her eyes. Michael was her _only _blood brother (or rumored, anyway) the only Archangel aside from herself, and Jesus Christ, that was born from God and a human mother. Just the fact that he had done nothing to plead her case to their father was almost heartbreaking. But of course, Michael had always been the _good _son.

"He . . . is still bitter?"

Castiel scoffed. "Little bit of an understatement, Issa."

"Wait, why would Michael be bitter? He's her older brother, isn't he?" Dean asked, and Issa nodded.

"We are the only Archangels that could possibly be called full blood siblings." Castiel nodded in Dean's direction.

"Dean, how are you?" Dean nodded back.

"Well, I'm . . . . good." Castiel nodded again.

"Well, Issa sided with Lucifer when he started his riots in his attempt to gain the throne of Heaven, over Michael, her own blood brother and her . . ." He glanced at Issa, but she only shook her head and Michael continued by shrugging. "Let's just say he didn't take it well." He finished lamely, and a look of slight confusion crossed Dean and Sam's eyes but Issa stopped them from saying anything by putting a hand on Castiel's shoulder.

"I assume you know why I called you . . .?" She asked him, and Castiel nodded.

"Yes, it wasn't that hard to figure out, to tell you the truth. However, I don't know what you think I can do. I'm not that high-up on the food chain anymore and without Michael helping you . . ." Issa's face fell.

"So . . . there's absolutely no way Michael's going to help me and Sam?" She asked him, and he gazed pointedly into her eyes as he took her firmly but gently by the upper arm.

"He's _bitter_, Issa! . . . You wounded him." He told her and she swallowed heavily and nodded, averting her eyes to the carpet.

"I know . . . I honestly didn't know what possessed me in thinking that he would help." Castiel smiled a small smile.

"You thought what everyone else would have thought. But then again, you should have realized, that in times of trouble, Michael isn't exactly famous for helping his siblings." He told her, and Issa's eyes shot onto him, defiant and angry.

"But I was different, Castiel! I was his -"

"_Issa_!" He interrupted her. "What's done is done, and unfortunately, you have bigger problems, namely Gabriel!" Sam nodded at his words.

"Balthazar said that he was petitioning to get Issa back upstairs?" He spoke, and Castiel nodded as his eyes fell onto Sam.

"For once, Balthazar was telling the truth. And from what I have been able to gather before you called me down here . . . it's a pretty popular motion." He spoke, glancing at Issa, who turned a stricken look onto Sam.

"W-why would they support him? Normally Angels don't have any pity for the Fallen!" She spoke, and Castiel nodded in agreement.

"Normally they don't – your right - but this is different. You didn't willingly Fall. God cast you down as punishment – a harsh punishment in many eyes – harsher than what many believed you deserved!" He told her. "So Gabriel is using that against him. He's building a pretty watertight case."

"What can we do?" Sam asked quietly, and Castiel shrugged.

"Pretty much nothing," He spoke regretfully. "You're a mortal, so you can't plead a case, and with Issa a Fallen, she can't either! Well . . . not in the flesh, anyway. She can have a defender, though . . ." He spoke, turning his eyes on to her, and immediately, her eyes grew wide at what he meant.

"Castiel, would you . . . are you proposing to be my defender?" She asked in shock, and he shook his head.

"Unfortunately, I am not that high to represent your interests. However, there is one that is more than willing to defend you . . . Uriel."

Dean snorted in amusement, although Issa and Castiel's unwavering gaze was unbreakable. "Why . . . would he want to help me? What could possibly be his reasoning?" She asked him, slowly, forcing herself to keep her voice even, even through the anger that tensed her voice and her words, and Castiel sighed.

"He's not nearly as bad as you think he is, Issa -"

"He struck down my _mother_ because he claimed she was making God weak!" She all but exploded at him. "He struck down my mother and now he wants to represent me in a matter that could – _literally_! – do me and Sam in! Give me one good reason why I should, Castiel!"

"He's all you have, Issa!" Castiel snapped at her. "Michael's not even able to gaze at you without wanting to strangle you for your so-called 'numerous betrayals' – some less than savory! – Lucifer's down in Hell where he can't do _shit_, and Raphael just basically _hates_ you! Uriel is all you have! I can't be your defender, Issa, because I'm not high up as I had been, or —believe me!—I would gladly help you and Sam! Uriel, however, is high up enough to where he could be your defender, and he had a good reputation amongst the Angels in general. But more importantly, he _wants _to help you, Issa!"

Issa shrugged lamely. "But why would he want to, Castiel? All we've been is cordial with each other! Why would he want to be my defender in something like this – something this huge?" She asked him, and Castiel shrugged.

"I . . . I don't that, Issa. All I know is that he proposed it and I told him I would relay his words to you."

"I say we allow him to."

Issa and Castiel turned a surprised gaze onto Sam, who shrugged. "Issa, it sounds like he's all we have. I would do anything to keep you with me, and if trusting this guy is the way to do it, then I'm all for it!"

Castiel smiled and brightened up. "See! Sam's willing, why aren't you?" He asked, and Issa opened and closed her mouth for a moment before throwing up her hands in defeat.

"I . . . fine. Tell Uriel he can represent me if he wishes, but stress the fact that I would sorely appreciate it if he keeps in touch with me. You know . . . keep me updated." She spoke and Castiel nodded.

"I will. Don't worry . . . everything will be fine." She smiled a small smile and hugged him tightly for a moment.

"Balthazar called me 'lynx' today . . ." She laughed lightly as they hugged, and Castiel grinned. It was the first grin that Dean and Sam were pretty damn sure they had ever seen on his face before, and quite frankly, it shocked them a little.

"You are . . . your Lucifer's regular little lynx . . ."

"Don't tell Michael that." Castiel laughed.

"Oh, don't worry Issa, I won't. I enjoy keeping my life!"


	10. Chapter 9

**Okay, I have gotten a fair amount of PM's and a couple of reviews demanding for more Sam/Issa parts. o not worry, my dear readers, you will get plenty of more Sam/Issa parts in the future, but for now, I am simply trying to set the stage for the main confict. I'm doing this for you guys and mainly for me, because I'm not really sure how I want to act this out, and before I get too heavily in the Sam/Issa and especially the Sam/Issa/Dean love triangle, I want to get all my ducks in a row, so yeah, be patient, and they'll be more, promise :)**

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><p>"Hey . . ."<p>

Issa turned around later that evening as she hung around outside the hotel room she now unofficially shared with Sam - sitting on the hood of Dean's car, actually – a joint in her first two fingers. "Didn't Sam tell you that the car's off limits?" He spoke good-naturedly, and Issa smiled a small smile and shrugged.

"No one else to sit and I didn't think you'd mind too much . . ." She replied, and Dean shrugged and eventually nodded in agreement as he gestured to her fingers.

"I didn't know you smoked . . . the illegal stuff . . ." He spoke up and Issa grinned back and laughed a little as she gazed down at the joint in her fingers.

"Yeah, it was an, uh . . . rather unsavory quirk that I picked up with Michael when we were living a mortal life in 60's Manhattan." Dean laughed as he joined her on the hood of his car.

"Groovy . . ." He spoke and she nodded and laughed.

"Studio 54 was where it was at, son!" She spoke grinning, and she took another drag and then slowly let the smoke out. She offered it to him and Dean shrugged as he took it from her and took a long drag himself. He held it in for a moment before he too let the smoke out slowly and then handed it back to her. He shook his head.

"That's some good shit. Where'd you get it?" He asked, and she shrugged.

"I told you that, I'd have to kill you . . ." She grinned, elbowing him in the ribs, and he grinned and laughed.

"That you'd would . . ." He spoke quietly as he turned his eyes down to gaze at his hands in his lap. They stayed in silence for a moment before he decided to break it. "Can I ask you a question?" Issa shrugged.

"You can . . . but you might not get an answer." She joked, and he grinned and nodded.

"That's fair enough. So I'm just wondering . . . have you . . . always been close with Michael?"

"You could say that."

"How close?"

"We were always closer to each other than we were to our other siblings, if that's what you're asking. Well . . . maybe except for Lucifer, but he's a sore subject for any Angel, much less an Archangel. Then we spent a few mortal lifetimes together, had some fun. You dig?"

Dean grinned and nodded, chuckling. "Yeah, I dig. But I um . . . the reason I asked was. . ." He trailed off.

"You wanted to know what Castiel meant, didn't you?" She asked him quietly, and he nodded and turned his eyes up onto Issa. She was gazing at him keenly, occasionally taking a drag from her joint, and he shrugged and nodded again.

"It's just . . . Sam, he deserves . . ."

"Its sweet, Dean, that you're so protective of him. I really respect that," She told him quietly, turning her eyes down to the smoking joint she was now slowly twirling around in her fingers. "But you don't have to worry. Gabriel, he's . . . you don't have to worry about Gabriel, let's just say that . . ." She spoke and he sighed.

"I wasn't talking about Gabriel . . ." He spoke slowly, turning to gaze at her, and she laughed a little.

"Oh. Listen, Dean . . . you don't have to worry about Michael either. There's no competition there." She assured him.

"Then tell me what Castiel meant." He spoke and she adopted an expressionless face, her eyes still downcast on the joint between her fingers.

"All growing up, Michael was the oldest of us. He taught us, he protected us . . . and we were always _so close_!"

"But . . .?" Dean gently prodded, and Issa shrugged.

"Michael was always destined to inherit the throne of Heaven whenever God . . . _retired_, I guess is the word, despite the common misconception that Jesus would," She stopped for a moment and shrugged. "He chose me to spent the rest of eternity with . . . by his side, as his companion, his partner, his-his . . . his wife . . ."

Dean furrowed his eyebrows in slight confusion. "But . . . you two are . . ." Issa shook her head.

"Those are mere rumors, and no one truly knows if they are real except for God himself. God has never commented on them except to say that we hold a mortal bond closer than the others, and I always thought there was a grain of truth to them, but . . . sometimes, in the way he acts and looks at certain things, I know deep in my heart that he's not my blood brother. Lucifer . . . he was never what I would call, 'evil'. There was always a goodness inside him that outshone everything! He would take care of birds with broken wings, only to release them when they healed – he would soothe a child who had died, but left their parents back on earth. He was vocal with God when he was ordered to do something he did not like or he would think his conscious would have a problem doing. He was . . . he was the better one out of all of us – the one that was most pure.

"Now Michael . . . Michael was different, Dean. Michael would do _everything _that was commanded him – down to a 'T', even. If he was order to massacre a bus full of schoolchildren, he would have done it, with no objections raised. 'Everything we do, that is ordered by God, is for a purpose', he told me once when I raised objection to him fulfilling one of his orders."

"They fought over you?" He asked her and Issa shook her head.

"It was . . . God told me after the Revolution and after he cast Lucifer down into the depths of Tartarus, that not even he foresaw how tooth and nail, they fought each other for me. He likened them to Cain and Abel – two brothers hated each other beyond all measure and I . . . I was the instigator."

"What about Gabriel and Raphael?"

"Gabe and Rap, as the youngest of us five, had taken the vows of celibacy – whereas Michael and Lucifer, who either one was destined to inherit the throne of Heaven, did not. They were not allowed to touch a woman in any way, much less be seen in the company of one outside of meetings and gatherings."

"What changed that?"

"After Lucifer fell, I was punished. I was punished for loving him, for . . . breaking the vow I had given Michael that I would be only his, by giving myself to Lucifer. I was whipped, I was flayed . . . every medieval punishment imagined, was dealt to me. Gabriel told me later that Heaven as never seen so much blood since the Revolution and my subsequent punishment. Me and Gabe, we . . . we eventually fell in love, I suppose, and I ended up being the Angel that he broke his vows for."

Dean recoiled slightly. "Damn . . . now I know what kind of pressure you're on," He spoke and Issa scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"You have no idea, Dean. After my punishment and confinement, I was finally released and . . . I quickly became lost. Lucifer had been my only friend – all the other angels envied me for my relationship with both him and Michael, and they shunned me. Lucifer was the only one who would call me a friend. When I was released, they shunned me even more, as . . . Lucifer's Whore."

"Is that when Balthazar gave you that nickname?"

Issa grinned and laughed. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. I met him and Castiel and they were the only two who didn't shun me. Balthazar, of course, was almost an outcast himself, so in his words 'we banded together to survive the idiocy of Heaven'," She spoke and they laughed a little. "Castiel was just a brother-figure. He didn't blame me for siding with Lucifer. He didn't blame me for a lot."

"So . . . what do you do now?" He asked, and Issa shrugged.

"I don't know. Really, it depends on how things upstairs go. I could be recalled back tomorrow or in a few seconds, or I could stay down here, grow old with Sam, and have kids, then die and go to Purgatory and languish there for a few thousand years, before I even get my case reviewed!" She laughed a little. "I don't know about you, Dean, but I'm kind of hoping for the latter." He grinned and laughed a little as he nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I think Sam wants to shoot for that one too." He spoke and she observed him keenly before she averted her eyes to the ground. The joint in Dean's fingers had long since been smoked out and now lay in a tiny pool of smoldering ash on the pavement below them.

"How long have you liked me, Dean?" She asked him quietly, and Dean's eyes shot onto her with alarm.

"How . . .?"

Issa chuckled. "I'm still a woman, Dean, and a woman knows when a man likes her. That, and Sam told me he suspected as much." She gazed at him for a moment. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"What was I suppose to say, Issa?" He asked her. "You were Bonding to Sam! Anything I said or did, would have been useless! Your body would have outright refused me – welcoming only Sam! And even if your body didn't, your mind certainly would have! Sam is your life, Issa! He has been your life since we found you! I can't do anything about it anymore, especially now that you're fully Bonded and he's your Lifemate."

"You make the whole process sound Vampiric." She laughed and he shrugged.

"Isn't it similar? Vampires sometimes mate for life . . . just like Angels and their mortals. I was just the one who didn't reach you first." He spoke quietly, and Issa sighed as she stood from her place on the car and stood before him.

"If its any consolation, Dean . . . if this was completely different circumstances, and I was not a Fallen Angel, and we were in a bar . . . you'd be the first person I'd take home." She told him and he smiled weakly.

"Even over Sam?" She laughed as she put her hands on his shoulders and pressed a kiss to his temple.

"_Probably _. . . even over Sam."

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><p><em> "He's a fucking <em>asshole_, Issa!"_

_ "Lucifer, please calm down -!"_

_ "How can I calm down, Issa?" Lucifer roared at her as he swept the contents of the desk, to the floor in one enraged sweep of his hand. He twirled around to face her then, his face livid. "Firstly, he wants me to love a being two steps above a fucking _monkey_, above him, and secondly – _secondly_! He wants me to hand you over to Michael – claims that it's wrong for us to be together because you're technically his!" He shook his head then, gazing at her with misery in his eyes. "I might be able to force myself to love those monkeys – after all, they are kind of endearing – but _never _. . . could I _ever_ give you up!" He shook his head. "Especially to him . . . especially to Michael."_

_ "He would lord me over you . . ." She spoke and he swallowed heavily and nodded._

_ "Exactly . . . he would lord you over me . . . as something he has but I could never have," He brightened up and grinned then, causing Issa to grin and laugh as well as Lucifer as he circled around her, his chin eventually falling on her shoulder and his arms around her waist. "You know you want me instead, anyway . . ." He teased and she rolled her eyes and gently moved out of his grasp._

_ "You think everyone wants you, Lucifer!"_

_ "But everyone _does_ want me, Issa!" He teased, grinning, and she rolled her eyes and laughed. "Especially you . . ."_

_ "Think again, Lucifer."_

_ "Don't you?" He asked, laughing, and she glanced at him. _

_ "Well, I would certainly choose you over Michael if given the chance!" She laughed as she moved out of his grasp to move onto the balcony overlooking the entirety of Heaven. She met it as a joke, but with no laughter coming from Lucifer, she knew he didn't take it that way. "Lucifer . . .?" She asked in curiosity as she turned around to face him, only to see him gazing at her with an expressionless face._

_ "Why don't you?" He asked her and she opened her mouth to say something, but he interrupted her by jumping off of the table and outreaching his hand. "Let me explain first – 'cause it just hit me! What if we . . . _rebel_?"_

_ "Rebel . . .?" Issa repeated the word with an eyebrow raised in skepticism and he nodded._

_ "Exactly, Issa, that's what I'm saying! We could rebel against God – take over Heaven – I know a lot of Angels who are jumping at the chance! Leviathan, Beelzebub, Azazel – they all want change, Issa! Not one of them wants to bow down to these monkeys – they want things to stay the way they are – where we love God and no one else! I could inherit the throne if we win – cast down Michael - you could be mine! You could be my wife! You would still inherit everything you are supposed to inherit – but _without _Michael by your side! You would have me!" He laughed a little as he crossed the space between them and took her hands in his. "Isn't this what we've always dreamed about Issa? We would have a world in which we could be together – without Michael vying for your affections at every turn? We would have a world without pain, without loss, without sin . . . don't you want that?"_

_ Issa thought for a minute about everything Lucifer had just told her. They had often lain awake at night after making love, envisioning this perfect world – a world where everything he had just said was true – a world that if Angels could have children, they would in this perfect little world of their own making. She swallowed heavily and he continued to gaze at her with an expressionless face, carefully gauging her reaction. _

_ "We could do it now, even, if you don't want to wait. They're gathered in the square, beneath God's temple. There are hundreds and hundreds of Angels, Issa, there's no way we'd lose!" He promised her and she swallowed heavily again as she gazed into his eyes. She had heard that when Angels truly loved someone, they would Bond to them. They would feel like they couldn't live without them. Issa had yet to fully know if she loved Lucifer like she wanted . . . if she had Bonded to him like the Angels whispered they had._

_ But she didn't care . . . she knew she loved him._

_ She stood on her tiptoes and threw her arms around his neck, where she kissed him, long and deep and full of the love she could not show him at that moment. He kissed her back and when they broke apart, she gently took his hand, lacing their fingers together._

_ "You know I'm with you, 'Luc . . . two against the world." She told him and he smiled thankfully, his eyes shining with love as he brought up her hand and pressed the back of it to his lips. _

_ "Yes, Issa . . . two against the world."_

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><p>Issa swallowed heavily and rubbed her face with her hands as she left the memory, tears welling up behind her ears as she did so. She squeezed them shut, desperate to banish them before they could come in a torrential waterfall. She didn't know why these memories had been plaguing her lately. She had theories, but she had no way of proving them. She wished she had someone to tell her what was wrong.<p>

She opened the door to the bathroom and stood on the threshold, framed by the bright light of the bathroom shining behind her, gazing upon the bed, where Sam slept. She smiled a small smile and leaned her head up against the nearby doorframe. She gazed upon the figure of Sam – her Lifemate.

The more she thought about it, the less and less her mind could point the subtle differences between Sam and Lucifer.

There was Sam and Lucifer . . . the only two men in the entire universe who could ever successfully say that they had held a key to Issa's heart.

Her hand found the bathroom lightswitch on the nearby wall by the door, and she cut it off before moving through the darkened room to the bed. She could hear Sam's breathing in the dark, long and smooth and fluid – the kind of sleep customary of one who was in a deep sleep. She carefully, slowly climbed in bed, not wanting to wake him, but she knew it was too good to be true. His arms snaked around her and pulled her against his front, his face moving to bury in her hair.

"Where have you been?" he asked her quietly, groggily, and she smiled.

"I was outside for air. I talked with Dean for a minute." She spoke and he nodded.

"Finally – maybe you two have settled your differences! What did you talk about?"

"Oh, this and that - nothing bit . . . nothing for you to worry."

"Nothing's ever big with Dean. But don't worry . . . I'll let you keep your secrets." He teased and she grinned as she turned over in his arms, on to her back, where she gently smoothed her fingers through his silky locks of chocolate brown hair. His hand moved to lay on her collarbone as he kissed her, and warmth spread from the place on her collarbone where his hand met her skin, and she grinned at the feeling. She would never get used to the feeling of warmth that spread throughout her body at every touch made by Sam.

They grinned and laughed as Issa pushed him on his back and climbed onto him. She mounted and rode him with a slowness that was almost excruciating with its pleasure, and she grinned at the abandonment with which Sam begged and pleaded with her to go faster. She teasingly obliged him for a moment before resuming her slow pace, and laughed at the frustrated, almost angry growl that would tear lose from his throat.

_"You little tease . . ."_

At first, she thought the words had come from Sam, but when she grinningly turned her eyes onto him to reply, she realized that he had said nothing. He was busy fighting with himself to allow her to remain in control, and her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

_"'Lucifer's Little Minx, huh? Jesus Christ, I thought that nickname would be the very first thing you would drop!"_

Issa gasped and stopped her motions, her head swiveling around, her eyes vainly searching the darkened room trying to find the source of the voice. She knew that voice . . . that voice had haunted her dreams for the last two millennia.

"What is it?" Sam asked her breathlessly, and Issa shook her head as she slowed her attempts to try to find the source of the voice in the room. Maybe she had imagined it . . . maybe she hadn't. But whether or not she had imagined it or not, it seemed to be gone now.

Issa shook her head again. "I-I'm sorry, Sam, I thought . . . nothing . . ." She smiled a small smile and shook her head. "Forget about it . . ." She whispered as she started moving again, immediately causing him to let out a low moan as she leaned down and kissed him, deeply, passionately.

_"He's not me, is he Issa? You want to _think_ he can compare to me, but he can't, you know that! Issa . . . Issa, my little lynx . . ."_

"You fucking _bastard_!" Issa hissed as she sat up and turned around at the waist, her eyes searching vainly for the source of the voice again. This time, she _knew _who the voice belonged to. There was no doubt in her mind that it was him.

"Issa, what is it?" Sam asked her, his voice growing stronger, more alarmed, and she shook her head and pursed her lips.

"I thought . . . I thought I had heard Lucifer . . ." She told him, shaking her head. "I thought I was free of him."


	11. Chapter 10

**Okay, after sorting through all the whining PM's over how I have yet to truly fulfill a Sam/Issa part, I have decided to give you guys one. It starts out kinda rocky, but overall, I'm happy with what I did . . . I like it a lot more than the last lemon I did in this fanfiction, that is, especially considering that after this, I think I might start instigating the whole 'DeanxIssaxSam' love triangle that everyone's been gossiping about ;)**

**And then maybe Lucifer will be thrown in there for good measure . . .**

**And possibly Michael . . .**

**And let's not forget about Gabriel - oh no, he's playing an important part . . .!**

**Well a****nyway, enjoy the lemon and review to your heart's content :)**

**- Nagiana**

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><p><em>It had all gone wrong . . . horribly wrong. <em>

_ The other Archangels had long known of the plot to overthrow Heaven, and the 'hundreds upon hundreds' of Angels that Michael had told her he had recruited, were either arrested by the cronies of the other Archangels, killed in the first wave of attack, or had turned coat and joined the forces of the Archangels._

_ They were losing . . . and they were losing fast._

_ "'Luc . . . we can't win this . . ."Issa spoke quietly, her eyes sweeping the battlefield, wide and fearful. Broken, bleeding bodies of Angels littered the battlefield – Angels on God's side, and Angel's on Lucifer's side both. They stood on a hill opposite God's Temple, and Lucifer swallowed heavily and nodded. His hand squeezed hers, and she didn't let go. She would never let go of him._

_ "I thought . . . I thought we would win, Issa . . ." He spoke. "I had thought out everything – every last detail!" He shook his head before turning his eyes onto Issa. "I'm so sorry, Issa!"Issa opened her mouth to speak, but a voice roaring her name split through the air. They jerked around, where they saw Michael calmly moving up the hill towards them, flanked by both Gabriel and Raphael. Issa's hand moved up to clench at Lucifer's biceps as they stared down their brother . . . and Issa's betrothed._

_ "What are you doing with him, Issa?" Michael asked her, his voice confused, but his eyes were hard. He knew what she was doing with him . . . but he needed to hear it from her. _

_ "We started this Revolution, Michael -" _

_ The oldest Archangel let out a bark of a laugh. "Is this what you call this? This is little more than a spat! Really, Luci, I would have thought you would have planned this out more, knowing you!" He spoke, his voice heavy with sarcasm as he turned his eyes onto his younger brother. They darkened when they fell onto how she clung to him, unwilling to let go of him. "But I should have figured my love would have gone over to your side. Really, Issa – after everything I've done for you?"_

_"What exactly have you done for me, Michael?" She interrupted him with a spitting venom that made Gabriel and Raphael recoil slightly but Michael to simply arch his eyebrows in slight amusement. _

_ "Then – pray tell – what has Lucifer done for you that I have not? He has given you nothing but lies and broken dreams and exaggerated ideals – whereas I have given you certainties and promises that you know will never be broken! He has given you a Revolution that has crumbled into dust before your very eyes!" He shook his head. "You have taken both of us in to your bed, so I feel like it boils all down to our performances. Strange . . . I never took you for one who would judge someone by that."_

_ "Michael, how dare you-!"_

_ "Lucifer, you have defied our father, and it is with a heavy heart that I have do this . . ." He spoke before he gestured behind them and Lucifer and Issa turned around, where they watched in horror as Angels flew swiftly over the sheer drop hanging over earth, other Angels screaming and thrashing as much as they dared in their grip. They saw Leviathan in one, Azazel in the other. _

_They were being banished . . . they were being banished to Tartarus. _

_Lucifer and Issa turned around, fear on Issa's face, but it wasn't on Lucifer's. Anger was on Lucifer's. "Michael, you are an asshole if you allow this -!"_

_"You know, my brother, I practically raised you before Issa and the others came along. I took care of you in a way most people could never understand, and I still love you. But I am going to banish you because it is right and I have to."_

_"__Oh, because God told you do so?" He snarled with sarcasm._

_"Yes. From the beginning, he knew this was how it was going to end between us – between you and Issa. He told me himself before he sent me."_

_"And you're just gonna do whatever God says? Even though you know good and well that you will never be able to forgive yourself after this . . . even though you know Issa will never forgive you – you will still do this?" Michael hesitated for a moment but then quickly regained his bearings and nodded resolutely._

_"Yes . . . I will do this because I am a good son." He spoke and Lucifer rolled his eyes in frustration as Michael moved forward and embraced his younger brother tightly. "Goodbye my brother . . . I will always love you."_

_And then, before anything else could be done, Michael broke apart from him, and with one resolute, powerful shove, shoved him off the side of the precipice, down to earth and Tartarus even below that. _

_Lucifer's fingers slipped free from Issa's like they were coated in butter, and he hurtled over the edge, her name mixed together with a roar of both rage, terror and pain. She fell to the ground as well, screaming his name as well, as her eyes filled with bitter tears of rage and anguish. She sobbed and called for him, even when he fell into obscurity through the clouds, the other Angel revolutionaries doing the same. _

_As he fell, it felt like something snapped inside her – she actually felt something snap inside her, almost like a ligament tearing. She hunched in on herself, coughing and sobbing with pain and anguish as it felt like something inside her had been torn in two. It was could almost be classified as excruciating._

_It was then that she knew that she had been in the process Bonding with him. The pain resulted from their Bond being forcibly torn apart._

_Michael let her stay that way for a moment before he hunched down and gently grasped her arms. "Issa love, come on -" She shrieked and flung him away from her, cursing his name and the woman that had birthed him, her motions successfully interrupting him mid-sentence. He stumbled backwards onto his feet, a shocked look of sadness upon his face. "Issa, I don't understand . . . how can you -"_

_ "You're an asshole, Michael!" She interrupted him with an angry scream through her sobs and coughs. "I loved him – don't you understand me! _I loved him_! I was _Bonding _with him!" Michael shook his head again, the look of shocked sadness melting away from his face, only to be replaced with one of expressionless._

_ "One of you two . . . take her to father . . . he wants to speak to her." He spoke, and Gabriel immediately moved forward, where he gently grasped her upper arms, shushing her. She didn't shriek or throw away Gabriel's arms. Instead, she slumped into his chest, gripping him as she sobbed out her anguish. Michael looked away, unable to look upon the scene any longer._

_ "What do we do once we take her to father?" Raphael asked him coldly and Michael turned a look upon him that Raphael couldn't fully place._

_ "Then you take her, wherever the fuck he wants her to be taken!" He snapped at him. "Because quite frankly, I can't deal with her anymore!"He then turned and marched down the hill, leaving Gabriel and Raphael to deal with their sobbing older sister. Raphael watched him go, taking note of the way that Michael wiped away bitter tears that occasionally escaped past his carefully schooled expression to slide down his cheeks. _

_ He had never seen his older brother so wounded. And the bad thing was, he had no idea what had done it – being forcibly told to push his brother into Hell . . . or the greatest love of his life shrieking and pushing him away like he had been a monster._

_ Raphael put his money on the latter._

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><p>Issa awoke that morning and didn't doing anything for a moment. The dream lay fresh in her mind, the screams of Lucifer as he was hurtled down into Tartarus, not slowly fading from memory. They lingered on the fringes, making themselves known again when she was about to forget them.<p>

She snuggled back down into the crisp cotton bed sheets of their hotel bed, pulling the starchy, scratchy bedcover over her head. The warmth that enveloped her was nothing like the warmth she garnered from Sam and did nothing to clear her head.

She threw off the covers after a moment and turned around, automatically stretching out a hand, but finding Sam's side of the bed empty and cold. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion for a moment before she saw him, fully dressed and hunched over the nearby table, observing the newspapers spread out on the flat surface. He was doing research, it looked like. Great . . . that probably meant that either he or Dean had found a new assignment.

She glanced at the digital clock on his bedside table, the red blinking lights showing that it was 8:30 in the morning. As if on cue, she yawned and rubbed at her eyes. "Hey, stranger . . . what are you doing up at this hour?" She asked him and he shrugged, heaving those massive shoulders that Issa loved so much.

"Couldn't sleep, so I decided to make a pot of coffee and do some research . . ." He told her tersely, nodding towards the filled black coffeemaker sitting on a nearby dresser, and that was when she realized why he was so tense. After Lucifer's voice appeared unbidden and completely unwanted in her mind, Issa could not back into the mood. She didn't know why – but no matter what Sam did, she just _couldn't_ get back into the mood for sex. She felt bad, turning on her side, knowing that she couldn't provide him the outlet he needed.

She ran her fingers through her hair. "Look, Sam, I'm sorry . . ." She began, but found she couldn't find any words to best describe what had happened to her the previous night, and when she turned her eyes onto Sam, she saw he was hanging his head. His body was rigid, tense. She forgot how badly mortals needed sex. Angels could go years – _centuries_, even – without so much as an itch! Mortals, however – especially mortal men! God, there was a reason why that particular mortal topic served as a topic of hilarity amongst mortals.

"You didn't tell me how Bonding was for a mortal . . . you or Dean didn't . . ." He spoke quietly, and she turned her eyes onto him, her brows knitting together in confusion.

"What do you mean, Sam?" He shook his head.

"I feel this . . . _longing _in me, this-this _tugging_! I don't know best how to describe it, but all I know, is it is accompanied by the _strongest _urge to be in your arms! I-I don't know if its . . . a _Bonding_ thing, or if I just love you more than I think I do, but it's _not_ going away, Issa!" He told her and she swallowed heavily.

"I . . . I don't know what to tell you . . ." She spoke and he gave a scoffing laugh.

"Of course you don't!" He spoke, somewhat sarcastically and she gave him a look.

"I _don't _knowSam! For once, I _don't_ know what's wrong, and you berate me for it? You got to believe me when I tell you that I don't know what's wrong with you and if you probably ignore it for a few days, then it'll probably go away!"

Sam laughed again. "All I know is that things were going great with us, and then all of sudden, shit gets thorny in our relationship, and _Lucifer _suddenly appears to be talking to you!" He shook his head. "I know what to believe right now Issa . . . I really fuckin' don't." Issa rubbed her face with her hands.

"Sam, it's hard to explain . . ."

"Of course, everything's hard to explain when it comes to you!" He spoke, somewhat bitterly, as he turned around and moved to sit down in a nearby armchair. He took out his cellphone and began fiddling around with it as she let out a frustrated growl and threw aside the covers, where she rose, naked from the bed.

"You know what? Talk to me when you're not so sexually frustrated!" She snapped at him and he cracked half a grin and scoffed.

"I probably wouldn't be so fuckin' frustrated if you managed to give me something last instead of making me seek out a cold shower!" Issa froze mid-stride and slowly turned around, where she glared dagger at him for a moment.

"That's it . . ." She spoke and Sam turned his eyes up onto her, his eyes wide with confusion.

"What's what?"

"Put the fuckin' cellphone away . . ." She snapped as she moved towards him.

"Issa, what are you doing?" He asked her warily, and he watched as she fell to her knees before him – between his parted legs. His heart thudded heavily in his chest as – seemingly ignoring him now – she undid the button and fly to his jeans. "Issa, what are you doing?" He demanded, his voice coming out quicker than he had intended, knowing full well what she was doing. He swallowed heavily, his hands squeezing the arms of the armchair as she slid a hand in the tight confines to stroke his sex, watching him with a determined, almost angry look on her face as his eyes fluttered close and he allowed his head to fall backwards as a moan escaped past his lips.

She stood and her hand slid behind his neck, bringing him back up so that their lips could connect, and he kissed her hungrily, ravenously as the sounds of clinking metal and the soft rustling of fabric filled the air as they undressed him. Then they were stark naked before each other, Sam all lustful eyes and hard, throbbing cock. Issa couldn't help but grin as she leaned over him, their lips inches from each other's.

"Nice hardware, Sammy . . ." She murmured, and they kissed again before she moved down and took him into her mouth, sucking him into the deep recesses as her tongue flicked along the underside. His fingers fisted in her hair and he bit down on his bottom lip as he let out another moan. Sam wanted her so bad right now – despite the fact that he should be more than pissed at her - but her lips wrapped around his swollen cock didn't help matters much!

Ignoring Sam's guttural groans and pleas of pleasure, Issa continued to tease him with her tongue, swirling it around the sensitive head before finally encircling him with her lips and taking him fully into her mouth again, her tongue delving into the tiny, weeping slit at the tip, tasting he saltiness of him. He let out a sharp hiss, his hands moving to bury ever deeper into her thick black locks.

"Oh my _God . . ._!" He all but groaned out, his eyes squeezing closed and his head moving to fall back again. It was almost more than he could bear. She bobbed her head up and down slowly, running her tongue along the underside of his erection, her mouth a ring of fire that shot bolts of pleasure all up and down his engorged member.

Soon, he saw stars and a blinding whiteness appeared behind his closed eyelids, and he bit down hard on his knuckle as he came in her mouth. When he opened his eyes and peered down at her, she was licking his still slightly stiff cock clean, and when she turned her eyes up onto his, a pearl of white was seen clinging to her bottom lip. She moved to lick it off with her tongue, but he wordlessly shook his head and leaned over, where he kissed her deeply, his tongue filling her mouth deliciously, and he tasted himself and the drop of come on her bottom lip on his tongue.

Issa grinned and laughed as her arms came up to wrap around his bare shoulders in an embrace as he picked her up and carried her over to the bed, where they fell back on the half-made bed, his knee nudging her thighs apart as they did so. He moved up, sliding between her legs, hot bare skin to scorching bare skin, creating a warmth that made a mad dash up and down her body whenever they made contact, causing her let out a mewl of pleasure as a reaction. Their lips never broke from the passionate kiss they had started. It was something breathtakingly erotic, a sensual prelude of what was soon to come and Sam's head bent down to kiss her and everywhere he could reach without shifting position. His lips were tantalizing and sweet, leaving a smoking trail of fire down the duskiness of her skin wherever they went.

And all the while he was kissing her, his newly hard, heated length nudged at her throbbing, weeping center, fierce and insistent. He soon pulled her beneath him even more, slid inside her the tiniest bit and then stopped. He let out a low growl of primal need, his eyes shining in amusement at the more-than infuriated look in her newly lust-filled eyes, and his head bent again to capture her lips with his. Even while he kissed her, his hands were constantly skimming her sides, fingers moving up her arms and then her stomach, her rib cage, cupping her to pull her up and into him so that she could feel every inch of his silken length against her.

Issa pressed a kiss against the hard line of his jaw, then his throat, savoring the heady taste of him. Her hands drifted over him, over the broad width of his shoulders and his lightly muscled chest and pectorals. She grazed the hard ridge of muscles banding his chest and belly in a gentle exploration and found that she could go no lower, for his body was wedged tightly against hers. It served as a solid pressure that was hot and soft and hard all at the same time. His hands were pressed deeply into the white bedding on each side of her as she investigated him, and his weight balanced over her, shifting slightly so that her hands could go lower. He made a low, guttural sound as her hand moved lower into the heat between their bodies, her fingers wrapping around his length again, and he closed his eyes and drew in a shuddering breath.

He could almost feel the warmth spreading through her body now . . . creating something so breathtakingly erotic between them – something that only _they _could feel.

She ached for him. Her thighs were spread wide, cradling him intimately and her skin tingled with expectation and a reaching for something just beyond her grasp, and she knew that Sam held answer. His head bent. He found the sensitive peak of her breast and his lips closed around it, tugging at it lightly. His hand moved, fingers seeking, stroking her, making the throbbing ache worse. She could barely breathe, could only arch upward, wordless and dazed, whimpering softly, begging him for more.

_God_, this guy was talented!

Sam kissed her again, more fierce and insistent this time. He moved up, his body a hard, exciting promise that she trembled in anticipation at soon feeling him inside of her, stretching her to delicious heights. He surged forward, making her gasp softly at the slight ache as he filled her, his eyes holding hers - dark with lust and his body still trembling slightly at keeping himself in check when all he wanted to do was move with a reckless abandon.

She moaned and latched onto him. A long, shivering stroke, a quiver as he held himself there, then he dragged away and thrust again, slow and luxurious pleasure, aching need and hovering promises, faster and faster until she was caught up in it and answering his furious, pounding thrusts with her own, legs wrapping around him and clinging, head thrown back, hearing his wonderful husky groans in her ear meld together with her high-pitched moans as time shattered and careened around them in a spinning arc. Their bodies spasmed in a rhythm all their own, and for just a second, there was not Sam nor Issa, but a screaming chorus of ecstasy.

Sam tangled his fingers into her hair, the other hand wrapped around the middle of her back, and he rolled over onto his, taking her with him as he did so - touching her everywhere and keeping her still pleasantly tingling with post-coital bliss. She felt him relax beneath her, and she pulled her lips from his, burying her head into the crook of his neck, murmuring incoherent sounds. Resting her hands near his body, atop his chest still, she sighed and breathed in deeply, taking in his musky male scent.

She felt his chest shake, knowing that he was laughing. "I think I'm good now . . ." He murmured and she laughed too.

"You better be . . . because I'm not waking up at eight thirty in the morning anymore just to have sex!" She teased him and he returned the laugh as he wrapped an arm around her and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"Oh you know you didn't mind it . . ." He teased back and she shrugged.

"Your right. . . I didn't!"


	12. Chapter 11

**Okay, this part has been swirling around in my head for a while now and I thought it would both add a certain amount of coolness, a dash of WTF? and be a good starting point for the whole DeanxIssa part of this story that I've been promising for like - ever!**

**And did I mention that its just overall awesome?**

**So anyway, I do hope you'll enjoy it, cause . . . I had A LOT of fun writing it! **

**And for once, I don't mean that sarcastically! It was really fun to write cause, I don't mean to toot my own horn - but the concepts pretty awesome :)**

* * *

><p>"Hey, Dean, can I ask you for a favor . . .?"<p>

Dean glanced up at Issa making a hesitant way towards him, and nodded as he stood up from the exposed motor of his car and slowly wiped his oily hands off on a rag hanging from one of his belt loops. "Uh sure Issa . . . what you need?" He asked, and Issa smiled a small smile.

"You, uh . . . you wanna take a quick road trip . . . real quick? It'll be . . . _really_ quick." She asked him and he furrowed his eyebrows in slight confusion. Even though her tone of voice was cheerful and inviting, there was a hidden emotion to her eyes that he couldn't quite put his finger on . . . not mention her clear nervousness.

"Uh, yeah, I garnered that it would quick the last five times you said it!" He teased, and blush bloomed across her cheeks a little as she shoved her hands in the back pockets of her jeans and worried at a loose rock in the dirt with the toe of her boot.

"I uh, I don't mean to be imposing or anything, but it's just . . . something I would really like to do before we head on to our next mission." She told him and he slowly nodded his head.

"Okay, I'm pretty sure we can do it. Just . . . let me finish what I was doing and you go get Sam -"

"No, Dean!" She interrupted him quickly by latching onto his arm. He cracked a half-grin as he glanced down at how hard she was clutching at his leather-jacketed arm.

"Issa, if you wanted me to hold you, all you had to do was ask!" He joked, and her blush grew brighter as she mechanically withdrew her arm back to her side and then heaved another sigh. "It's just . . . I would much rather not do this with Sam. He . . ." She trailed off and stayed silent for a moment before beginning again, her eyes rolling. "I feel like you would . . . you would just understand this situation more!" She finished lamely and he nodded as if he understood, but really, she had him as lost as an Easter egg at Christmas time.

"You uh . . . can you stay away from Sam?" He asked her and she nodded.

"Yeah, it won't be any big deal. Where I want to go is not far away, we should be back by tonight, actually . . . the warmth should hold out for that long . . ." She told him and he nodded as he gestured behind her to the hotel that they were staying at.

"Did you tell Sam where we were going?" She shook her head and worried at the rock again.

"No . . . I told him we were going to do a little research on a strange occurrence that happened around here at the local library . . . he acted like he bought it, and when he started researching the history of the town, I knew he had." She told him and Dean quirked an eyebrow at her in amusement.

"I never met an Angel that could lie so good!" He spoke, and Issa shot him an evil look.

"And I never met a mortal who cracked so many bad jokes and pick-up lines!" She shot back and he laughed as he bent back down over the motor to finish what he had started.

"I won't object to that, darlin'!" He spoke, his voice slightly muffled from being under the hood of the Impala, and after a few minutes of him tweaking with something, he finally withdrew from underneath the hood, where he slammed it down. "There we go, we should be good . . ." He spoke and she shot him a curious look.

"What was wrong with it?" Dean shrugged, cracking another half-grin.

"Nothing - I was just trying to tweak some more speed out of it." He told her and she rolled her eyes.

"Are we ready to go now?" She asked him impatiently as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, and Dean laughed as he gestured to the car.

"Yeah, get in!" He laughed as they both opened the doors and got in, Dean pulling out of the motel parking lot moments later.

"Just turn onto the main road and keep going for a bit," Issa told him and he nodded as he glanced at her.

"So . . . what's so CIA secretive that you had to drag me along instead of Sam? I thought you didn't even like me . . ." Issa shrugged.

"I don't, 'don't' like you Dean, you just . . . get on my nerves sometimes . . ." She laughed a little and he returned the laugh as he glanced at her again.

"So, what exactly are we doing, then?" Issa pursed her lips and looked out the window into the rainy day pass the window. She hunched down into the seat and crossed her arms in front of her chest again.

"Just . . . keep going, Dean . . . please . . ." She spoke quietly, and he sighed and nodded as he turned his attention back onto the road. They stayed silent for a moment until it grew so awkward, that Dean just _had _to break it or else he would have gone insane!

"You know, Issa . . . if you just wanted to get me alone, you could have just come to my hotel room at one thirty in the morning." He told her, glancing at her again, and immediately wanted to recoil when he saw her eyes were closed. At first, he thought she was asleep and didn't hear him, but then she answered him, her voice slow and monotone.

"Just . . . stop talking Dean."

It took a minute for the words to sink down into his brain, but when they did, they seemed to light a fire underneath his ass. He gritted his teeth as he pulled onto the side of the road and turned off the ignition. He took out the keys and held them in his hand as he turned in his seat to glare at her. Issa's eyes immediately popped open, and she sat up, gazing around her in confusion.

"Dean, why did we -"

"What the fuck, Issa, is so damn _fucking_ secretive, that we have to leave Sam back at the motel?" He demanded his voice cold and slightly angry. He then scoffed and looked away. "I'm not stupid, Issa! 'Road trip'? Well you weren't fuckin' kidding! We're out on the Goddamn highway!"

Dean could tell Issa was trying to keep her anger under control, and just seeing that, made him even angrier. "Dean, I know we've never gotten along, but for the love of God -!"

"Don't 'for the love of God' me, Issa!" He interrupted her angrily, his eyes storming over with anger. She had to admit . . . Dean was sexy when he was angry. "You _fuckin'_ conscripted me to do this! I'm driving, so I have a right to fuckin' know where I'm taking you, that way I'm not taken unawares if you drag me into a den or a coven or Hell – a _murder _– of God only knows what!"

"I wouldn't do that to you, Dean . . ." She told him quietly, and he scoffed.

"Well, how the fuck would I know that?" He snapped back. "And unfortunately for you, I am not moving this car until you tell me what the fuck is going on."

They stayed in another silence for a while before Issa bit down on her bottom lip and hugged herself. "I just . . . Dean, I _can't_ _tell you_!" She spoke, her eyes closing as she enunciated the last three words.

"And why can you not tell me?"

"I just . . . _I can't_!" Dean's hands tightened around his keys, gritting his teeth in anger, impervious the feel of the teeth of his keys biting into the flesh of his palm.

"Issa . . ." He growled, and she shot a teary-eyed, anger-filled gaze onto him. He immediately recoiled, his anger temporarily forgotten.

"Dean, I know we haven't gotten along in the past, but I need you to _trust _me, and know that I would never blindly take you into a place of danger, okay? It's just . . . I need to go to see someone – someone I haven't seen in a long time!" Dean held her unwavering gaze for a moment – his face expressionless, and her gaze turned pleading. "Please, Dean . . . I need you right now . . ."

Dean looked away then, his mind fighting and clawing itself on what he should do. Something inside him told him that he didn't want to do this, that it could possibly hold repercussions that he could not even begin to fathom!

But with one look at the beautiful Angel sitting teary eyed beside him, begging him to help her – that she _needed_ him – he was already hopelessly hooked.

"Fine . . . I'll trust you against my better judgment." He told her, reluctantly, as he turned back to the wheel and cranked the Impala again. Issa grinned and hugged him tightly.

"Oh thank you, Dean!" She all but squealed as she pressed a kiss to his cheek. He intensely wished that kiss had landed somewhere else, but he pushed the thought from his head as she resumed her seat next to him and he carefully steered the car back onto the highway.

After driving for a good hour, they hit the town of Shepherd's Glen and eventually stopped in front of a neat and tidy two-story white clapboard house in a neighborhood where all the houses looked the same. The lawn was neatly manicured, the paint on the walls, porch and siding, smooth and without any blemish tarnishing its surface. An American Flag flapped lazily in the cloudy breeze, and Issa swallowed heavily as she and Dean got out of the car.

"Is this the place?" He asked her, somewhat doubtfully, and Issa nodded.

"Yeah . . . this is the place." She spoke before she glanced back at him. He sighed and gestured to the sidewalk, where together, they made their way up the sidewalk to the front door. A cute little Fall wreath hung on the door as Issa hesitantly reached forward and knocked on the door. It took a moment, but eventually the door opened, revealing a cute little old lady with curling white hair and wearing a cable-knit sweater, khaki slacks and bedroom slippers. Issa smiled a small smile.

"Hi ma'am, are you Abby Hardy?" The old woman nodded her curiosity evident.

"Yes, I am she . . ." She spoke, and Issa's smile grew wider.

"Hi Ms. Hardy, my name's Alice Doherty, and this is my husband, Dean . . ." Dean recoiled a little in shock at the surprise way she introduced them, but quickly recovered himself. "We're friends with your daughter, Marie . . . she mentioned that we might stop by?" Abby Hardy thought for a moment before grinning and nodding.

"Oh yes, _your _Alice! Marie talks about you all the time – come in, come in!" She told them as she opened the door and stepped inside to allow them admittance. Issa told her thank-you as she grabbed Dean's hand and moved them inside, their fingers automatically entwining.

The inside was the atypical old woman house – comfortable furniture, with blankets depicting cute little animals hanging over them – cream walls and soft carpet. A Shih-Tzu dog, seemingly as old as his owner, was lying on one of the couches and immediately stood up, where it began barking ferociously at them.

"Cooper, stop it!" Abby scolded him gently, and the dog did as he was told, but hopped down from the couch when Dean and Issa took their places on it. "Would you like something to drink – a cup of tea, perhaps? Marie said you might have been driving for some time . . ." She asked them, and Issa smiled and nodded. Dean did the same. Abby nodded as she disappeared into the kitchen, and Dean immediately turned his attention onto Issa.

"'This is my _husband_, Dean?'" He asked her quietly, and she shot him an apologetic smile as she stood and moved over to the mantelpiece, where she observed the pictures. He saw her swallow heavily as she gazed at each of the pictures, and furrowed his eyebrows in slight confusion as he saw her run a shaky finger over one depicting a young man and woman getting married in what looked like the forties or fifties. "You okay, Issa . . .?" He asked her slowly, a tad worriedly and she nodded and turned to gaze at him, smiling tightly.

"Y-yeah, don't worry about it . . ." She assured him, her smile turning into a grin as Abby returned to the living room, a tray of tea in her hands. "Here, let me help you with that, Ms. Hardy . . ." Issa offered as she gently took the tray from her, Abby adopting a approving look on her face as Issa set it down on the table with as much gentleness as she had when she took it from her.

"You're too kind dear! My, your wife is an Angel!" She told Dean, and he sported a half-grin as he chuckled and took the cup of tea that Issa handed him.

"Yeah, I've heard that once or twice before, Ms. Hardy . . ." He spoke grinning, and Issa shot him a look as she stood up with her own cup of tea in her hands. She pointed to the picture on the mantelpiece that she had been observing.

"Ms. Hardy, if you don't mind me asking . . . but who are those two people in the picture on the mantelpiece?" She asked, and Abby's eyes lit up as she stood and moved over to the picture, where she picked it up and pointed to it.

"This, dearie, are my mother and father on their wedding day, back in . . . 1940 I think . . .!" She told her before she pointed to them. "Alexander and Miranda Hatcher – they were two pillars of our community, you see. This was also their house . . ." She spoke as she handed it to Issa. They both of them took their retrospective places and Abby's eyes lit up again. "Actually, Mr. Doherty, you look _amazingly_ like my father when I was a young girl, now that I think about it!"

Dean craned to look at the picture over Issa's shoulder upon her words, and when he did, it was like he had been socked in the chest. All the breath left his lungs and it took him a moment to realize what he was looking at. The woman in the picture was _clearly_ Issa, by her long black hair and the shape and color of her eyes, and the man she was standing next to, their face a shining beacon of love as they gazed at each other (down, in the man's position, up in the woman's) . . . was Dean.

Or . . . a guy who looked a spitting image of him, anyway.

Dean gazed at Issa, shock in his eyes. They were . . . Abby Hardy was Issa's _daughter_!

And his, if he believed in what he was seeing.

"You-you don't say!" Dean spoke, his voice cracking, as Issa smiled and handed the picture back to Abby. Abby gazed at the picture fondly for a moment before glancing at Dean.

"Oh yes, the resemblance is very much there – I see it now!" She sighed then, her wrinkled, liver-spotted hand moving to her collarbone as she remembered. "Oh, I remember him like it was yesterday! He was _such_ a huge presence in our home all growing up! Me and Leo – that's my brother, he's dead now . . ." Issa swallowed and nodded and Dean glanced at her, noticing the tears in her eyes that appeared when Abby mentioned Leo . . . their son. "We loved him with all our hearts! We couldn't wait until he would come home from the law office every day and he would _always _bring us something! I remember – one time, he brought me a doll and she was _so _pretty! She had red hair and blue eyes – I called her Lissy, and I remember that my mother would get so angry, because I could not bare to be parted from her for any broad length of time. Oh, he knew me and Leo too well!" She smiled kindly at Issa. "And you know, Marie always told me that you looked like my mother, and I didn't believe her until now! My dear, you look as much my mother, as your husband does my father!" She shook her head then, remembering.

"I remember . . . they had loved each other so much! There was never a moment in our house, where their love didn't fill everything. I was always amazed when I grew older, that they had only two children!" She laughed good-naturedly, and Dean smiled and laughed a little too as he glanced at Issa.

"Yeah, I wonder why . . ." He spoke quietly, and Issa smiled a small smile.

"He . . . he died, didn't he?" She asked quietly, ignoring Dean's words, and Abby's face fell as she nodded.

"It was such a sad day. He struggled with cancer towards the end of his life – pancreatic, they think now, and . . . he suffered – oh _God_ did he suffer! It positively tore my mother's heart in two, but I cannot remember a time where she was not strong! My mother was such a strong woman, made even stronger by my father, and when he finally passed on – I was about twenty-two and married, Leo was about twenty-five and married . . ."

"Twenty-six . . . he had been twenty-six when Alex passed on . . ." Issa murmured instinctively, but Abby continued on, not even hearing her.

"She died a few months later. The doctors say she died of pneumonia, but I know what really happened – I know the truth!" She wagged a stubborn finger at them. "I know she died of a broken heart! My father meant _too_ much to her for her heart not to have broken so badly!" Abby then took a sip of her tea before she gazed at them curiously and put her own cup down. "What about you two . . . do you any children?"

"No . . . no we don't . . ." Issa spoke and shook her head, a look of sadness appearing on her face. "Unfortunately, we don't. It's uh . . . rather complicated." She spoke and Dean nodded in agreement. Abby gazed at them with sympathy.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Marie lives on her own with her husband and children – as you know Alice – and so do Trevor and Michael. All I have to keep me company is Cooper . . ." She told him as she lovingly patted the Shih-Tzu on his fluffy head. Dean sat there, frozen with shock for a moment. This was almost too much for him to bare! He had, had a past life – a past life where had been married to Issa – they had two children, Leo and Abby, and even grandchildren! Hell, they possibly even had _great_-grandchildren!

Now he knew exactly why Issa did not want to bring Sam with them.

Abby glanced at the clock before gasping and holding her hand to her chest again. "Oh my, look at the time! I assume you two will be staying for supper – I won't take no for an answer!" She told them sternly, and before Dean could even answer, Issa grinned and laughed as she nodded.

"Of course we'll stay for supper, Ms. Hardy! Marie can't stop talking about your cooking and I wouldn't miss a chance to find out for myself!" She told her and Abby grinned and thanked her as she gestured for them to follow her into the kitchen. Dean and Issa moved to follow her, but Issa was held back by Dean's firm hand latching onto her upper arm.

"Now I know why you didn't want Sam coming with us!" He spoke, a little sarcastically before he turned his eyes onto her. "Why didn't you tell me, Issa?" He asked her quietly, and she shrugged.

"What was I supposed to say to you, Dean? Alexander was a past life, you don't even have memories of our life together – you didn't even know about Abby and Leo until I brought you here!" She told him and he swallowed heavily.

"Were we happy, at least? Did . . ." He leaned in and lowered his voice, shrugging. "Was our sex life decent?" He asked her in interest, and she smiled indulgently and pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek.

"Our sex life was _phenomenal_, Dean . . ." She murmured in his ear, grinning, as she broke away from him and moved down the hallway to the kitchen. She moved like she remembered every nook and cranny of the house, and indeed, she did. Dean, however, stood there for a minute and observed the house, trying vainly to remember something – _anything_ from his past life, when he had been the lawyer Alexander Hatcher (He must have hated it, because why else would he have tried to persuade Sam not to take up that profession) and married to Issa, the housewife and mother, Miranda Hatcher.

_His _housewife and the mother to _his_ children . . .

He looked around but ended up with nothing. Any spirit of Alexander Hatcher still lingering in this house hoarded his memories as greedily as Scrooge hoarded his gold. From within the kitchen, he heard laughter, and his eyes automatically fell onto the archway leading to a room filled with the smells of good cooking and a beautiful woman.

He moved slowly into the kitchen and stepped inside, immediately finding Issa standing beside Abby by the sink, grinning and laughing with her . . . daughter. The kitchen was made out in yellow tile and linoleum, the motif teapots and kittens. He wondered if this was how the kitchen looked way back when, and he made a note to ask Issa that later.

Their eyes connected across the kitchen, and by the pain that suddenly crossed them, he knew she was propelled back into a memory, and he tried vainly to reenact it in his mind the exact same way it must have been playing out in hers. Maybe she had been standing in front of the sink like Abby was doing now, washing dishes or vegetables, with maybe Leo and Abby playing or doing their homework at the kitchen table. Then, Alexander would walk into the kitchen and stand in the exact same place that Dean was in now, his hands shoved down in his front pockets in the exact same way that Dean was doing now.

Then, there was a certain softness that appeared her eyes and he felt a keen yearning to hold her – to take her into his arms and bury his face in her hair. It was a _powerful _yearning, almost as if Alexander himself wanted to do it.

But of course, that would never happen . . .

He felt his heart break at the revelation.


	13. Chapter 12

**Lot going on in this chapter, just letting you know now., and it is a pretty long one . . . debated on splitting it into two seperate chapters, but eventually decided on just one LOL**

**Lucifer makes a more "physical" appearance in this chapter instead of just the schizophrenic voices she's been hearing, and he reveals something that may or may not be confusing, not sure yet. Of course, I wrote it, so of course its gonna make sense to _me_, so if you get it or not get it, then you know . . . review and tell me :)**

**Thirdly . . . I know this DeanxIssa lemon is probably better than _any other_ lemon I have ever written for Sam and Issa, but unfortunately, I am on a Dean Winchester pedestal right now, so don't take it seriously and don't worry! My Dean-ness right now will in no way impact the ending for this story I had in mind. **

**Pinke swear :)**

* * *

><p>They had left Abby Hardy's house later than both of them had anticipated. They had sat and ate dinner with her and then instead of politely excusing themselves, they had stayed there and talked and laughed and shared memories over their clean plates (well, real memories in Abby's position, mostly faked in Dean and Issa's) and Dean could not remember a time where he had laughed so hard or grinned so much as that point in his life.<p>

He learned that Leo had broken his arm falling from a tree in the very same backyard that they were looking out the window into, and that he had driven him to the hospital. And when they were stuck in traffic, Alexander (or Dean) had gotten out of the car, picked him up, and then ran the rest of the way to the hospital. Issa laughed hard, tears going down her cheeks, and Dean wasn't entirely sure if they were tears of laughter or tears of remembrance. He elected for both, and eventually, he was crying with laughter as well, holding his aching sides.

"Oh dearie, Marie was right! You and your husband are a _trip_!" Abby sighed as she patted Issa's hand gently. Issa nodded her head.

"Well thank you, Abby; you're a trip too -"

Issa was abruptly cut off by Dean reaching over and grabbing her hand, where he gazed at her mournfully. "Issa, we have leave soon . . ." He spoke, and her face fell as well. They sat there for a moment, gazing at each other, knowing within their heart of hearts that they did not want to leave. They had found a relationship with each other – a stable friendship that could only grow stronger if built with care. Abby's face softened.

"Well, it is getting dark, and I assume you'll want to start off getting home. You'll come back and visit, won't you?" She asked, and Issa glanced at Dean again, who nodded.

"Yeah . . . yeah we'll try. We travel a lot, so the next time we drive through, we'll be sure and stop on in and say hi." He told her, and Issa couldn't help but smile thankfully at him, her hand squeezing his. Abby sighed then as they stood and followed them to the door.

"It was so nice meeting you Abby – and thanks again for letting up stay for dinner!" Issa thanked the old woman as she hugged her tightly. Abby smiled and waved her away as they broke apart.

"Oh don't mention it! You two were a pleasure! And you, young man!" She spoke before growing serious and pointing a finger at Dean. He recoiled a little as she smiled then, a sly smile that immediately had them grinning and laughing. "You be sure to keep this one . . . she's an Angel!" She told him, and Dean chuckled as he looked down at the porch and wrapped an arm around her waist, successfully brining her closer to him.

"Don't worry, I won't!" He assured her, and Issa grinned but felt her heart flutter inside her chest nonetheless. His arm around her waist burned with warmth – his body a hard wall beside her. She placed a hand on his chest and marveled at the amount of muscle beneath her fingertips. They said their final goodbyes to Abby before turning and moving down the steps to the walk that eventually led to the black Impala, Abby closing and locking the door behind them.

When they slowly moved apart, their hands the last things to disconnect, Issa felt like a thread had broken between them. Her step faltered for a moment at the loss, but she continued, and Dean looked like he didn't notice.

They got into the car and Dean shrugged. "That was fun . . . I had fun." He spoke, and Issa grinned and glanced at him.

"So, do you regret taking this road trip with me?" She asked him, and Dean shook his head.

"Not at all – I quite enjoyed it! I learned something new about me – that I had a past life, and in that past life, I was a lawyer," He shuddered in horror at this and Issa couldn't help but grin and laugh as he continued. "I had a wonderful house, two kids and an absolutely _gorgeous_ wife . . ." He turned his soft gaze onto her as he quietly trailed off, and Issa blushed and looked away.

"Yeah, well uh . . . your pretty much right. We did have a pretty charmed life, from what I remember . . ." She joked, and Dean grinned as he cut on the car and turned out onto the street.

"Did you call Sam?" He changed the subject, and she nodded.

"Yeah, I did, when I went to the bathroom. I told him that we had a lead and we had followed up on it and it took us a fair amount of distance out of our way. I told him we would be back straight thing in the morning!" Dean nodded an impressed look on his face.

"Couldn't have said it better myself."

* * *

><p>"Yeah, can we get two rooms, please?"<p>

Dean slapped two twenties down on the scratched and worn plywood countertop of the cheap motel they had stopped at, and the bejeweled speckled woman sitting behind it with tomato red hair and lazily popping chewing gum, turned her uninterested gaze onto him. "Two rooms, honey? You sure you and your wife won't be more comfortable with one?" She asked him, and Dean glanced behind him at the tall, brunette Angel moving to sit on the hood of his car, where she turned her gaze up to the clear, starry sky. He turned back to her and smiled a tight smile.

"We're uh . . . we're a little estranged right now." He spoke and she sighed and pursed her lips as she picked up a book and plopped it in front of him before she rooted around for a working pen in the nearby coffee cup.

"Sign the ledger . . ."

Dean nodded and picked up the pen, where he clicked it and signed his name. After gazing down at 'Seymour Azzez' for about five seconds, he nodded in contentment before he smiled and turned the ledger back to her. She glanced down at the ledger before turning her eyes back onto him, her eyebrows rising in disbelief.

"Are you kidding me?"

"It's uh . . . its German. Dad was from Berlin." He told her, a half-grin playing out on his features, and she sighed again and gave a half-shrug as she turned around and plucked two room keys from the corkboard behind her.

"Quite frankly, I don't give a flying fuck if you're lying or not, so here – rooms 10 and 11. Go down to the end there, go up the flight of stairs, and the third and fourth door from the stairwell is you and your _wife's._" Dean smiled and nodded in thanks as he scooped up the two room keys.

"Thanks . . ."

"Yeah, whatever, _Seymour_. Housekeeping is at 8:00 am sharp every morning, and we _do not _have continental breakfast here, so don't be calling down here asking in the morning, or I'll charge you an extra twenty, understand?" The woman spoke sternly as Dean nodded and turned around, where he exited the room. He moved quickly over to Issa, rolling his eyes as he did so.

"She was the one ray of sunshine in my otherwise stormy night!" He told her sarcastically as he moved behind to the trunk, unlocked it and then opened it. Issa grinned as she moved to join him.

"What do you mean?" Dean shook his head.

"Well for one think, she looked like a fat rodeo clown, and number two is that she couldn't have been _any more_ enthusiastic about her job!" He sighed as he unzipped two army bags and stuffed in a few guns and spare clothes in one. He handed it to her and then did the same with the other. Issa cocked an eyebrow at her.

"What's this for, Rambo?" She asked him, and he glanced at her before he went back to refilling his.

"Oh uh . . . I got us two rooms. That bag is for you – it's got a couple of Sam's old shirts in it and a pair of his boxers . . . I don't know if you have a problem with wearing men's boxers or anything, but I'm not creepy enough to carry women's underwear around in the trunk of my car – although I probably should now!" He told her, and Issa laughed as she shook it gently, the both of them hearing the clink of metal that signified that the guns were jostling together.

"I meant the guns . . ."

"Oh! Uh, well . . . force of habit. I guess . . . better to be overly-cautious than anything else. Sam teases me about it, but when he needs a shotgun full of rock salt in a motel room at a split second and doesn't have one, he won't be teasing me anymore!" He told her, and she nodded silently as he slammed the lid of the trunk down and then locked it. He handed her, her room key and then gestured for her to follow him. "Now, the Rodeo Clown's directions weren't too good, but I'm pretty sure this is where – ah ha! Here we are!" He grinned as he rapped a knuckle on the wood of her room. He turned around and smiled a small smile. "You gonna be okay alone?" He asked her, and she raised an eyebrow in amusement and stuck her key in the lock.

"Why, will you check under my bed if I scream 'Monster!', O' Great Demon Hunter Dean?" She asked him flirtatiously, and Dean chewed on the inside of his lip as he gazed down at her, his face expressionless, but his eyes betraying an emotion that she couldn't entirely decipher.

"I only meant that I would be honored to keep you company if you have a problem with being alone. I know you haven't done so since we rescued you." He told her, and she smiled a small smile as she unlocked her door, removed the key and then grasped the doorknob.

"You don't have to lie to me, Dean . . . I know what you meant inside." She spoke as she opened the door and then stepped inside the darkened room. She nodded goodbye to him as she closed the door, immediately flipping on the lights as she did so. He wrinkled her nose in disgust at the décor as she tossed her bag on the bed. "Jesus Christ, I had this décor back in the 50's!" She muttered to herself as she moved to sit down on the edge of the bed, where she immediately fell back on it.

She couldn't help but almost regret turning Dean down. She didn't know how she felt about it. On one hand, she knew she was a strong, independent woman, but on the other, she didn't want to be left alone . . . Lucifer's voice still rang in her head, and she didn't know what would happen if she was left alone . . .

Not-to-mention how her body reacted at his arm wrapping around her waist . . .

She moved to lean on her elbows on the bed, and gazed around the room. Other than a mini-kitchenette, a table and armchair, a dresser, TV, phone and end table, the room was relatively bare, with the most horrendous pea green carpet and 50's era yellowish-orange wallpaper. She wrinkled her nose in disgust again until her eyes fell onto a nearby closed door. She grinned to herself and stood, where she moved over to the door, where she knocked on it.

"What's the password?" Dean asked in a sing-song voice, and Issa couldn't help but grin and laugh.

"I don't know, you didn't tell me . . . chocolate flavored cheetos?"

After a moment, Issa heard the lock turning on the other side, and the door opened, revealing a bare-chested Dean standing on the other side, wearing nothing but his blue jeans and Harley boots. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned on the door.

"Let me guess . . . monster?"

Issa grinned again and mimicked his pose by leaning against the doorframe across from him. "That was a guess with the password; you know . . . I don't even think they have chocolate flavored cheetos." She spoke and he shrugged.

"I guess you know me too well. Besides, who am I turn down a beautiful woman knocking on my motel room door?" He spoke quietly, and she bit down on her bottom lip while forcing herself to not look at his bare chest. She had to admit . . . Dean was certainly bangable, and God only knew that she would love to have that pleasure.

And oh God, those _lips_ . . .

Issa shook her head. "I just . . . I saw a door and I wanted to know where it led!" She told him, rather lamely, and Dean cocked an eyebrow.

"Really . . .? Do you take me for an idiot?" He asked her, grinning, and her eyes shot onto him.

"No . . . you're just terribly conceited." She told him and he laughed a little and glanced away.

"Yeah well, women figure out why when they find me in their bed." He spoke and she shook her head in disbelief.

"Sam is your _brother_ . . ."

"And technically, I'm still your husband!" He snapped back, his eyes cold, and she shook her head as she grasped the door, her eyes filled to the brim with disgust.

"_Fuck_ you Dean!" She hissed as she slammed the door in his face and stood back, her chest heaving. She felt something heavy hit the wood that could only signify either Dean's fist or head hitting it.

"Look, Issa . . . I'm sorry!" His muffled voice came pleading through the wood. "I just . . . I'm still having trouble comprehending everything from this afternoon, okay? Issa, please, just . . . _talk_ to me!" Issa shook her head and swallowed heavily.

"Good night, Dean!" She snapped through the wood and she heard him sigh before there was nothing but quietness that signified he had left the door. Issa was still breathing hard, unable to decipher the conflicting emotions that waged a battle within her.

Sam was her lover, he was _hers – _she couldn't bear to live without him!

. . . And yet . . . she couldn't help but realize that the entire time Dean had stood before her with his chest bare, she wanted nothing more but to push him down on the bed and ride him like Secretariat across the finish line of the Triple Crown.

She shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair as she moved into the bathroom, where she clicked on the light and turned on the shower. After getting it to the right heat, she moved in front of the mirror and after undressing, pulled her hair up with a clip behind her head. "Goddammit Issa, you've got to get your head on straight, girl!" She muttered to herself while laughing a little, and froze at the sound of deep-rooted male laughter coming from behind her.

"You're telling me! I mean, _come on_! Fucking one Winchester brother isn't enough for you?"

Issa gritted her teeth as her elbow shot back, aiming to crunch into anything that was Lucifer's, but when she felt his firm hand grasp onto the joint and the pin it behind her back in one smooth motion, she gritted her teeth and let out a hiss of frustration. The Lord of all Darkness grinned as he pulled her to him and pressed his lips to her ear. "When did you become so loose? Of course, if I was destined to marry Michael, I suppose I'd ride as much cock as I could too!"

Issa gritted her teeth as she grabbed the nearby soap dispenser and crashed it against Lucifer's head. He fell back from her with a roar of rage and a curse, and Issa wasted no time in flying from the bedroom and proceeded to pound her fists unmercifully on the door separating her and Dean's rooms.

"Dean! Dean, oh my God, _help me_!" She screamed, and that scream tore away as she felt a strong hand sink down into her hair and pull her away from the door.

"Now Issa - that's technically cheating, now isn't it?" He asked her as he threw her down on the bed, quickly straddling her so that she wouldn't crawl away. They sat there for a minute slapping each other before Lucifer managed to get a firm hold of her wrists and pin them above her head. "Issa, _listen_ to me!" His voice rising to be heard over her grunts of exertion, and eventually, she calmed down enough for him to speak. "Listen to me, I don't have much time!" He snapped at her. "And I don't exactly know why I'm telling you this, but I need you to think for a moment! Can you think for me?" He asked her, and she replied by spitting in his face. He froze for a minute and closed his eyes, anger broiling just below the surface before he reopened them and glared down at her. "I'm going to take that . . . as a yes. I need you to think back . . . as far as you can, to your first ever Life. What was it?"

"Are you insane? I'm not telling you!"

"Its common _fucking_ knowledge to me, Issa, I just need you to get your head in the game and _think_!" He all but roared at her, and she gritted her teeth and nodded.

"Of course I do! I was Lucrezia Borgia!" Lucifer nodded.

"Who was Michael?"

"Lucifer, I don't -"

"Who the _fuck _was Michael?" He demanded, and she thrashed again before she answered.

"He was my brother – he was Cesaire!" Lucifer nodded.

"Good girl. Now who did he murder?"

"He murdered a lot of people, you'll have to elaborate!"

"Who _close _to you, did he murder?" He asked through gritted teeth, and Issa actually had to think about it for a moment.

"It . . . It was Jem. He . . . Alexander told him to kill Jem. I didn't figure it out until later . . ." Lucifer nodded for the third time.

"Yes, he killed Jem. He killed your little Moorish Prince Lover. Now who did your Prince look like? _Think hard_ Issa – this is going to get important!" Issa closed her eyes and shook her head.

"I don't . . . I don't know - _Dean_?"

This time, Lucifer nodded slowly, and Issa completely stopped and gazed at him. "Lucifer, what are you -"

"Now think again, what was your next life?" He asked her and she shook her head again.

"I didn't have a Life after that for a while . . . there were problems with Heaven to deal with, but when I did, I . . . I lived in Civil War Charleston. My husband was Asa Rhodes; he died in the war – what does this have to do with anything?" Lucifer ignored her.

"Who did he look like?"

". . . Dean?"

"How did he die?"

"He was killed by my brother not soon after he returned home – I don't . . ." She trailed off, her eyes dawning in recognition, and Lucifer nodded slowly again as he slowly backing off of her so that she could sit up on the bed. "He looked like Dean . . . and he was killed by my brother not soon after he got home, who was Michael . . ."She shook her head. "Lucifer what -"

"Listen to me, Issa!" Lucifer told her quickly, his hands moving to frame her face. He gazed pleadingly into her eyes, and for a moment, Issa could see the man she had fallen in love with . . . the man who she had Bonded to.

"Believe it or not, there _is_ a pattern to this! Michael only kills your lovers that he deems either in the way, or very expendable because of his jealousy that stemmed from what we did! Throughout the centuries, through every one of your lives, he has killed your lover and/or husband, but _only _when he looked like Dean!" He told her and she nodded, a confused look still on her face.

"Lucifer, you're not -"

"Who is your lover now, Issa?" He asked her firmly, and she shook her head.

"Sam, but -"

"That's right . . . Sam. Michael needs Dean now, Issa . . . for once he _needs_ Dean alive and not dead! Sam is completely expendable to him and I hate to say it, but very dangerous to him as well," There was a banging on the door now and Dean frantically calling Issa's name, signaling that Dean was trying his damndest to get in, and Issa continued to gaze at Lucifer in confusion.

"Lucifer, are you saying that I need to protect Sam?" Lucifer nodded.

"You very much need to protect him right now, Issa! Michael is hiding behind Gabriel's anger. If Gabriel is allowed to bring you back up to Heaven, he knows that there is no one standing between him and slitting Sam's throat! Not even Dean would be able to save him!" Issa shrugged helplessly.

"Luc, I don't understand -!"

"You don't need to understand the whole thing right now, Issa, because you'll figure it out sooner or later – your smart enough not to!" He told her, his voice coming quicker when the wood between the door started to splinter. "You just need to understand how important it is, for you to protect Sam right now!"

"Why are you telling me this?"

Lucifer smiled. "Because _I _need Sam as much as Michael needs Dean. You'll figure it out later, but I need to go and I can't tell you!" He told her, and it was then that Dean busted through the door, a gun in his hand and finding a completely alone and completely naked Issa halfway lying on the bed. Dean's hand slowly fell to his side and he sighed.

"This is dirty pool, you know!" He snapped, immediately looking away, and Issa shook her head.

"Dean, what are you . . .?" She looked down and then immediately blushed, her hands scrambling to find something to cover herself with. "I'm so sorry Dean! It's just that Lucifer, he . . ." She finally stood, where she wrapped the bed sheet around her body and turned her gaze back onto him, only to find his eyes racking her body and she couldn't help but blush, the pinkness sliding up her cheeks with particular finesse.

"Are you alright?" He asked her, and she nodded, keeping her eyes on him.

"Yeah . . . I'll tell you later . . ." She told him, rather lamely, and she felt her mouth go as dry as cotton when she saw that look . . . that look of longing – of desire and barely contained lust. She looked away . . . and that was her downfall.

Issa heard Dean approach her, knew he was going to do something, but jumped nonetheless when she felt him sweep her hair away from her neck and press his lips gently against her skin. He kissed her all the way down to her shoulder blades, his lips leaving a trail of white-hot fire down her back as his hands gently moved up her arms, massaging her shoulders gently as he made love to the back of her neck. Despite the protests her mind yelled and kicked out, she couldn't help but moan out softly as his teeth lightly nibbled on her skin, and she allowed her head to fall to the side a little, allowing him to lead another trail of white-hot fire up the side of her neck to where he nibbled gently on her earlobe. She felt his hard arousal pressing against the small of her back through his jeans, and she turned her head so that their lips could meet. He slid his tongue into her mouth and explored every inch of the warm cavern - reveling in the sweetness coating her - tasting hints of oranges as her tongue met and fought his.

He slowly and gently turned her around, where he allowed the sheet to fall from her body, the cloth dropping to pool at their feet. He immediately took her breasts in his large hands and kneaded them gently. After a moment, he lowered his head and kissed them softly, nibbling at her pebbling nipples lightly, and Issa gasped in pleasure, her hand moving to run through his short, dark brown hair.

His lips soon returned to hers and he lifted her up in his strong arms, where he carried her to the bed. He lowered her gently down onto it, their lips never parting from their slow, loving kiss. They broke apart, only for him to kneel above her and pull the shirt he had been wearing (probably one he slipped on when he went to go get ice and drinks) over his head, revealing a chest so sculpted and rippling with muscles, that it almost put Sam's to shame. Issa took a type of voyeuristic pleasure in the rest of his well-muscled body as she ran her eyes over it. Winchester men were _certainly _enticing.

Dean silently watched her as Issa allowed her hands to run over his chest and stomach, feeling every lean, corded muscle and every white scar that puckered upon the bronze skin, her hand eventually stopping at his straining jeans, and Dean let out a strangled hiss of protest when she did not continue any lower. He caressed her bare stomach, smiling a small smile when he felt the muscles jump and quiver in anticipation underneath his feather light touch . . . forcing himself to not allow his hand to slip any lower.

"Issa . . ." He breathed, his deep voice trembling slightly, his eyes fogged over slightly with desire as his eyes ran up and down her perfect body. During any of his past lives with her, he had not truly realized why her body was so perfect, so angelic . . . now he knew. "Issa let me have you . . . let me make love to you . . ."

Absolutely no thought went into her answer . . . it almost made her feel guilty. "Yes . . ." Issa whispered, nodding her head as if he didn't understand her words. "Yes, Dean . . . I want you to take me . . ."

Dean kissed her again after her words, his hand finally and slowly making its way down to her womanhood, where he cupped her gently. Issa gasped and blushed violently as she felt his hand rub her passionately, his lips trailing down to worry at the crook of her neck. She moaned and closed her eyes as his ministrations grew harder to ignore, more insistent in what they wanted and demanded of her. She had never even imagined it could feel this good, and her hands gripped his biceps so hard her knuckles almost turned white. She felt him thrust a finger into her, where he moved it in and out, faster and faster until it was joined quickly by another one, the both of them curling upward.

"Oh my _God_ Dean . . .!" She breathed, and he covered her mouth with his again. She reached down to shakily unbutton his belt and jeans, and he wasn't late in helping her.

When his belt, jeans and Harley boots had joined the rest of their clothes on the floor, he carefully parted her legs. Her breathing hitched as Dean buried his face in-between her neck and shoulder, her lips pressing kisses to the hollow of his throat, and with one smooth, upward thrust, he was inside her and moving.

Issa whimpered when he entered her and quickly bit down on her bottom lip. But as he thrust again and again, the sensation of pleasure began washing over her, and she quickly found her rhythm and joined in with him, moving her hips with his - to meet every thrust he gave her with a hunger that matched his own. He gave a groan against her neck and breathed heavily against her, and so did she. The both of them reveled in the feeling of their slick skin moving deliciously against each other's as her legs moved up his to wrap around his waist, pulling him in deeper to her, the both of them letting out a moan at the new feeling.

Their lips found each other again, and Issa's hands wandered down to his sides, periodically allowing them to skim their way up his back before finding their home at his sides again. She knew it was horribly wrong what she was doing - a major injustice to Sam who lay sleeping peacefully back at the motel in their bed, but she couldn't stop what was happening to the both of them – she couldn't deny how so damn good it felt to feel Dean inside of her.

Again . . .

And even then, as she lay underneath another man, feeling another man give her the pleasure that only Sam had the right to give . . . she felt the dull trickling of warmth seep into her body. The warmth started in her toes and fingers and slowly – agonizing slowly, it seemed – flooded into the rest of her body. It was nothing like the sudden, nuclear warmth she felt with Sam, but just the thought that Dean was another who could give her that kind of warmth . . . in a weird, strange way . . . it made her feel better - more human.

They sped up - pushing the boundaries of the taboo they were performing, Dean's hands moving to grip the cheap motel headboard above her to better help him pound relentlessly into her, and Issa's nails dug into the skin of his sides, his back, bringing up little white crescent-shaped welts as she wrapped herself around him and arched her back underneath him. She closed her eyes and keened out as the both of them drove each other relentlessly to the brink . . . that _blessed_ brink . . .

Their moans grew louder as they both reached their climax - both of them seeing stars explode behind their eyelids when they closed them when their orgasm washed over them in warm, languid waves. Issa felt Dean give two more hard thrusts before his hips stilled and he spilled himself inside of her. She convulsed around him, making both of them temporarily breathless at the feeling.

They lay like that for a moment, Dean still supporting himself on the headboard above her, both of them trying desperately to catch their breath. Issa saw the muscles of Dean's arms quiver above her as he fought to support himself in order to save her his weight, his knuckles turning white as he clenched at the headboard.

After a moment, he lazily pulled out of her - both of them shuddering at the feeling of him slowly withdrawing from her - and he collapsed onto the bed beside her. He turned onto his side, where he put his arms around her, bringing her close to him. They were both sweaty from the heat of the room and trying desperately to catch their breath as they kissed again, their tongues entwining lazily, his fingers running gently through her thick black hair to trail down her back to her thigh.

Issa sighed, immediately thinking about how horrified Sam would be if she could see her now – how betrayed he would feel upon seeing her wrapped up in the arms of his own brother - their bodies weak and satiated with exhaustion and leaded, carnal pleasure.

After a moment of rest, he kissed her neck again, his tongue tracing the vein that thumped against her skin as he caressed her body - his hand delving between her thighs again – his fingers stroking her – stroking that fire back into full bloom and her body back into a hazy awareness. When he turned onto his back and pulled her gently on top of him, she rode him slowly, building them both up before it turned into another lovemaking session full of reckless abandon and animalistic need - Dean's strong hands on her hips, her thighs, guiding her as her head fell back and she whimpered with the pleasure as he sat up and pressed his lips to her collarbone.

She was ashamed that she didn't fight him.

It was a sinful pleasure . . . the pleasure that most hurt in the end.

And oh boy, did she hurt when it was done.


	14. Chapter 13

**Sorry for the shortness of the chapter compared to the last few ones I did, but this one serves as a sort of closure chapter until I get into the next one. It deals with how Dean and Issa handle what happen in the last one and I'm pretty satisfied with it, if I do say so myself.**

**Oh, and prepare yourself, because I'm gonna throw in a particularly hated person for me in the series in the next chapter :)**

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><p>The next morning, Issa awoke warm . . . warmer than she had ever been, in fact. She snuggled closer to the source of the heat, trying to cling to the last vestiges of slumber, a grin breaking out on her face when she remembered that it was the arms of Sam that she slept in, and that they had made up earlier yesterday morning -<p>

The warmth was moving . . .

The warmth smelled amazingly like musky _Curve _cologne . . . very unlike Sam's own choice of _Ralph Loren . . ._

Her eyes immediately sprung open and she was momentarily blinded by the light and by the sight of the strongly sculpted chest before her and muscular arms holding her in a surprisingly loving, protective embrace. Issa froze and waited for her brain to catch up to her eyes.

Dean . . .

Her . . .

Close. Warm.

_Together . . .!_

A blush crawled its way up her cheeks, and Issa silently tried to extract herself from where Dean was holding her surprisingly gently against his chest. She had been sleeping half on top of him with her head resting on his shoulder, an arm around him and a leg slung rather haphazardly over his waist . . . his _naked_ waist . . .

Dean groaned and tightened his grip on her, thwarting her escape. Blush bloomed more ardently across her cheeks when she felt him stir against her thigh and mentally berated her body for yearning most inappropriately for him at the feeling. She violently resisted the instinctual urge to arch into him.

"Hey, where're you goin' . . .?" He mumbled as he buried his face into her dark hair, his eyes not opening once.

Issa squirmed. "Dean, I have to use the bathroom!"

He sighed and gave her neck an open mouth kiss, "Fine!" He sighed playfully as his arms loosened enough for Issa to slip out of bed and scamper into the bathroom, where she firmly closed the door behind her. She immediately collapsed onto the toilet seat before her legs could give out underneath her, and buried her face in her hands, her body shaking visibly at what she had just done the previous night, and she rocked herself on the toilet, forcing herself not to cry.

Oh dear God, what has she just _done_?

She moved to instinctively rub her arms, but stopped when she was hit with a realization. She wasn't cold. She had thought she would be cold by now – cold because she had been without Sam's warmth for a day and a quarter, but no. She _was _warm – a toasty warmth that was different than the all-encompassing sunny warmth that Sam bestowed upon her, but it was warmth, nonetheless.

And nothing scared her more than knowing that Dean could give her warmth aside from Sam.

But nothing also made her more confused.

Dean chuckled and stretched like a large cat on the bed, lounging naked against the pillows except for one thin sheet slung carelessly over his hips. He listened to Issa move around in the bathroom. _Is this what she does with Sam in the morning? _Dean pondered for a moment before he sighed and put his hands behind his head, where he closed his eyes. He opened them then, realizing the enormity of what he just did.

He slept with Issa . . .

He had slept . . . with his brother's girlfriend.

Before he could think too much into it and start to freak himself out, Issa emerged then; wearing one of Sam's old shirts that he had stuffed into the army bag he handed to her (this one just happened to have a washed-out _Batman _on the front). On her, it was so big that it fell down to her knees, but Dean's apprehensive eyes could still make out her form. It was strange, but Dean inexplicably thought that she looked both adorable and sexy. But then he realized that it was Sam's shirt she wore and not his, and immediately felt his heart fall down into his stomach again.

She hesitated for just a moment, standing in the middle ground between the bed and the bathroom – the bed that held such an enticing Dean stretched out naked with just a thin sheet to cover himself with (which barely did that!). She swallowed heavily and looked away. "We should . . . we should probably get going back to Sam, Dean . . ." She spoke quietly, and Dean nodded in agreement as he swallowed heavily. She could see in his eyes that he realized what they had just done . . . the enormity of it . . . the guilt that wracked her soul because of it . . . the very same guilt that now wracked his.

And of course, neither of them wanted to admit just how good it had been.

Dean stood up, where naked, he moved over to his clothes, where he plucked them up off of the floor. He moved unabashedly naked, with the confidence of someone who had been this situation many times or was naturally, just very comfortable naked. He moved to head to his room but paused and turned to gaze at her.

"At least tell me . . . that I wasn't the only one who thought that last night was fucking amazing . . ." He asked her, his voice thick with emotion and not having the strength to look at her. Issa swallowed heavily and turned a tight smile onto him as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. Eventually, she shook her head, and she saw Dean's body lose some of its tension.

"You're not alone, Dean . . . it _was_ amazing." She managed to choke out through heavy, unshed tears, and although she saw his reflexive need to cross to her and soothe her before the tears came, he managed to rein himself back. He nodded stiffly and swallowed heavily before he left her hotel room and entered his. She closed her eyes and took in a shuddering breath as she sat down on the edge of unmade bed that looked more like a warzone than a bed that had been made love in that previous night.

Dean Winchester made love like he hunted demons – confidently and cockily – with a strength that left bruises where he had gripped her too tightly, yet she could not say that it had been nothing short of amazing. The man knew what he was doing.

She forced herself to calm down before she stood and headed for the shower, where she cut it on. After stripping and moving into the warm spray, she gingerly cleaned the dried sweat and sex from her body – relishing in the warmth and clean smell of the soap as she scrubbed Dean from her skin – for it was his sweat and sex that coated her body like a second skin.

She stood there under the shower spray for a moment when she was done, smelling as clean as the cheap hotel soaps could get her, and allowing the hot spray to trail down her body and down the seemingly fathomless drain at her feet. She was mentally butchering herself for allowing herself to fall for the wiles of Dean Winchester – his charm and natural sexuality that made any length of time with him unbearable if you had standards, and whose wiles she had previously thought herself immune to. Well it seemed she had been mistaken. She had been mistaken, and now she had gone and committed one of the worst of God's sins: Adultery.

After spending a few more minutes soaking, she cut off the shower and dried off with one of the towels before she dressed and ran a pick through her hair. When she decided that she didn't look too bad – too incriminating - she left the bathroom and found Dean sitting fully dressed and showered on the edge of the bed, his face buried in his hands and his zipped army bag sitting on the floor at his feet. She coughed slightly, and he immediately brought his head up, where he smiled genially at her.

"You ready to go?" He asked her, and she smiled a small smile and gestured for him to wait.

"Wait just a minute now, Barbaro! I'm not finished packing yet . . ." She spoke as she hurriedly packed away her toiletries, her eyes then settling onto the one thing that she had yet to pack: the clothes that she had stripped off on her way to the bathroom before she was apprehended by Lucifer.

Lucifer . . .

Oh _God_, she still had what _he_ had told her to contend with!

She quickly picked them up and after stuffing them into a clear plastic bag, shoved them down into her army bag, where she zipped it up. After slinging it over her shoulder, she turned to face him. "You ready to go?" She asked him, and he nodded and stood as well. He picked up their room keys and the both of the left the hotel room, both wanting desperately to forget what had happened there. Dean stepped aside and holding open the door to the Spanish maid, who entered the hotel with upraised eyebrows. Dean smiled a strained smile as they moved to the Impala. They both set their bags in the trunk before they headed into the front office, where Dean set the keys down on the counter. The woman glared at him over her rhinestoned glasses in amusement, her gaze flickering to a still shell-shocked Issa as well.

"Well my, my, don't you two look like you just committed a sin!" She spoke, somewhat gleefully, and Issa blanched and swallowed heavily, but Dean simply smiled another strained smile and tapped a finger on the keys.

"Yeah, whatever, here's the keys – we're leaving, have a nice day!" He informed her coldly before hooking a hand underneath Issa's elbow and leading her to the door, where beyond laid the Impala that would take them to their judge.

But that was if Issa even chose to tell Sam.

The Impala sped out onto the highway towards their temporary home and Sam, the both of them staying quiet except for the classic rock that played out on the radio. Dean glanced at her and swallowed heavily. "So, are you . . . gonna tell Sam what happened?" He asked her hesitantly, and she shrugged lamely.

"I don't know Dean. If he ever figured out, he would kill us, but then again, if he figured out later and that we _didn't_ tell him, then he'd be even _more_ pissed off!" Dean nodded and turned his gaze back onto the road.

"So, we just pretend this never happened and just go on our merry way?" He asked her, and she shrugged.

"I guess . . ." Dean shrugged too.

"Great. I can do that." He spoke, and Issa had to admit . . . it hurt a little that he had agreed so quickly to pretend it never happened. He glanced at her and noted her hurt expression, in which case he groaned and rolled his eyes.

"Well how the Hell did you expect me to react, Issa?" He demanded, his voice laced with anger and irritation. "I can't fight for you like every fiber in my body screams out for me do! If I fought for you and you left him, both of you would eventually die from your Bond breaking – so what the _fuck_ would be the point of that?" He shrugged lamely then, his voice growing quieter and losing much of its irritation and anger. "All I have is one night of pure fuckin' bliss to hold dear, and even then, I'm supposed to forget it!" Issa swallowed heavily and turned her eyes out onto the passing scenery beyond the car's window as rain plopped down onto the windows with a laziness that mimicked how they were feeling at that moment.

"I didn't know I would cause so much strife . . ." She confessed, somewhat bitterly, and Dean scoffed in agreement.

"I didn't know you would either, sweetheart. Actually, I didn't _plan_ on fighting for you period, but then you had to drag me to Abby's and I found out that for the past three or four fuckin' lifetimes, I've been romantically involved and/or married to you! And when I figured that out, it was something rose within me. I suddenly felt the urge to protect you – to claim you as mine, despite the blatant claim made by Sam already!" He spoke before she shook his head. "Issa . . . I love you. I love you so _damn much_, but . . . I gotta be fair. I've had you for the past three or four lifetimes all to myself - I didn't have to share you with anyone, selfish bastard me!" He smiled a small, tear-stained smile at her and chuckled. "What do you say we let Sammy have a go at love for this turn? Why don't we forget each other for this _one, single_ turn and allow Sam to be happy for once?" She grinned and laughed, tears brimming in her eyes.

"But that means it's a free-for-all the next life!" She spoke, and Dean laughed.

"Oh honey, in our next life . . . in our next life your all mine again!" He glanced at her. "Because our sex was fantastic, you weren't lying!" He shook his head. "And I ain't giving that up for long!"

Issa adopted a soft look on her face as she leaned over and pressed a gentle, loving kiss to his cheek. "Thank you Dean . . . you aren't as half bad as Sam ever made you out to be!" She teased him gently, and this time, when he turned his eyes onto her, they were amused and mirthful but within his eyes, she saw sadness and mourning. He didn't want to let her go. He had, had her for too long, that letting her go now bordered on agony.

"But hey, don't be telling anyone! I have a reputation to uphold with the women, believe it or not!" He told her and she smiled thankfully before she leaned over on him and buried her face in his leather-jacketed chest, her tired eyes closing in contentment as she breathed in deeply his cologne and the underlying masculine smell of him. He found one of his arms wrapping around her protectively as she grinned.

"You wore me out last night, Dean, I must say!" She teased him in slight approval, and he grinned.

"Yeah, but from where I was laying, you weren't exactly complaining! You seemed to be doing the exact opposite, actually!" He spoke, and she smiled and laughed a little before she soon fell asleep, once again nestled in his warm, protective and dare she say – _loving_ - embrace, but this time, in a much tamer manner.

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><p>They arrived back a couple of hours later when the car clock shone eight o'clock am, and the both of them shuffled huge yawns as they pulled up and Dean cut off the engine. They sat there for a while, feeling that they should say something to each other, but not knowing what else to say. Everything seemed to have been said already.<p>

They got out of the car instead, the both of them heading around to the front, where Dean took a seat on the hood. Issa stopped and turned to look back at him. "You uh . . . you gonna be okay?" She asked him hesitantly, and he nodded and waved her away.

"Yeah, I'll be fine! I just wanna . . . I just wanna think for a minute, okay?" He told her, shooting her a small, comforting smile, and Issa returned it and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, I understand! Just . . . I'm here if you need me." She told him, and his face was soft as he gazed at her.

"Go to Sam, Issa," He told her, his voice a tad cold. Issa shivered in the slight coolness as he spoke and for a moment, she wondered if the coolness of his voice had nothing to do with the coolness of that morning's wind. "Go back to Sam and forget last night. It would be best for both of us if you forgot it."

"How can you tell me to forget it when you won't?" She asked him a tad snappishly, and he grinned and laughed as he crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked down at the nearby sidewalk.

"I can say that, Issa, because I don't have someone else to create memories with to replace that one!" He told her, and she swallowed heavily but didn't reply as she turned around and opened the door to the motel room she shared with Sam. She closed the door gently and silently behind her – blocking out the world and Dean, and gazed at the motionless man lying on his side in the bed in the gloom. His cellphone lay on the nearby bedside table, and she smiled a tight smile as she stripped and crawled into the bed beside him, trying not wake him.

But no matter how slowly she moved, Sam was, after all, a demon hunter, and startled awake at the first movement he felt beside him. He startled awake, his eyes wide as he saw her, and eventually, the shock disappeared to be replaced with one of love and softness. "Hey, when you guys get back?" He asked her tiredly as he opened his arms to her, and she readily dove into them, her face burying into his naked chest as she snuggled into the warmth of his arms.

And indeed, what warmth it was! While Dean had only given her trickles, Sam gave her waves! They washes over her like ocean waves over sand as she lay there, and eventually, she felt herself grow tired. "Just a few minutes ago . . ." She told him, and she felt him nod tiredly.

"What did you guys figure out?" He asked her, and she shrugged as she closed her eyes.

"I'll tell you in the morning."


	15. Chapter 14

**LOL, okay, I lied a little bit. I am introducing a new character that is "Insanely" fun to write and which I can tell you guys are gonna hate, but she's not from the actual series, so there's where I lied XD. I toyed around with the idea of using Anna, but then I thought, well, she already has her own little plotline and I didn't want to mess with that because that would eventually just give a headache, so instead, I created my own and put her in here. I admit, she was really fun to write and . . . like her, hate her, want to murder her - whatever, I don't care, but review me what you think of her :)**

**PS. Sorry for the shortness of the chapter :)**

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><p>"You're absolutely sure that's what he said?" Sam asked her, his eyebrows rising in disbelief, and Issa nodded firmly as she leaned up against the nearby table and then crossed her arms in front of her chest.<p>

"Yup, I'm one hundred percent sure that's what he said. He said that I was supposed to protect you because he needed you, and that Michael would be trying to kill _you _and not Dean, because Michael needs Dean!" Sam let out a disbelieving sound as he glanced between her and Dean.

"Well did he say _why_ the most famous Archangel is trying to kill me?" He asked, and Dean shrugged lamely as Issa swallowed heavily and shook her head.

"No," She lied. "He didn't say why. That was all he told me before he disappeared."

"Well what do we do?" Dean asked her, and she sighed and gingerly rubbed the back of her neck. Her fingers glided over a particularly rough patch of puckered white skin – a scar that was a remnant of her punishment for siding with Lucifer during the riots.

"First, I suppose we should learn _why_ exactly Lucifer and Michael need you two. After we know that, I suppose then, we can move from there," She shrugged. "And I'll keep trying to get in touch with Cas and Balthazar – you know, to figure out how everything's going on in Heaven – what's up with Gabriel and stuff like that. Balthazar has been keeping me up to date, but he's been mysteriously silent lately . . ." She spoke Sam and Dean nodded.

"Well, while we do that, I found a series of disturbances in Colorado that might be interest -"

Dean was almost immediately interrupted by someone knocking on the door to her and Sam's hotel room. All three of them immediately looked at each other with confusion. "Did any one of you two order take-out?" Issa asked, and they shook their heads.

"No, I assumed we'd go out to eat." Sam spoke, and Dean nodded in agreement as Issa headed to the door. After grasping the doorknob and slowly turning it, she was immediately met with the feeling of hatred and revulsion washing through her body. Standing on the threshold of their hotel room, wearing a smile of sticky fake sweetness, was the bane of Issa's very existence, the Angel Andreea.

"What the _fuck_ are you doing here?" Issa immediately spat out, her hand tightening on the doorknob, and the scarlet-haired Angel simpered as she stepped past her into the room.

"Oh, Uriel just sent me down to see how my _favorite _Angel in the _entire world_ is doing on earth while he handles everything upstairs!" She spoke cheerfully as she entered the room and turned around to face her. While her face was practically covered in a smile so sweet, it would make a healthy person diabetic, Issa only held one of intense dislike and gut-wrenching hate on hers.

"Now why . . . in the Nine Circles of _Hell_, would Uriel send someone who he knew I fuckin' hated, to check on me? Why not just send Cas or Balthazar?" She asked her quietly, and Dean and Sam shared an alarmed, slightly apprehensive look. They had _never _seen Issa this angry before, and quite frankly . . . they were scared of this new angry Issa. Andreea simpered again as she bounded forward and hugged Issa tightly, Issa immediately freezing up and adopting a look of horror-filled revulsion on her face. Sam and Dean would have laughed at the look if they knew Issa wouldn't kill them upon the sound leaving their throats.

"Issa, I'm _so sorry_ for what I did! It was very wrong of me, and I only want to redeem myself in your eyes! You're like my older sister – you've _always_ been like my older sister!" She told her, and one of Issa's lips curled upward in distaste as they broke apart and she gazed at the angel standing before her.

"No fuckin' way are you staying with us, Andreea!" She snapped at her. "Number one, we don't have the money and number two -"

"Oh you must be _Sam_! Oh God, your practically a _celebrity _in Heaven!" Andreea interrupted her by turning around and addressing Sam. Sam adopted only a look of alarm on his face as he stood and she bounded into his arms in a sudden hug. He gazed at Issa stricken, his hands moving out to the sides so that she could see where they were. Issa merely rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Andreea, I want you to go -!"

"And of course, this _must _be the infamous Dean!" She spoke giddily as she broke apart from Sam, who immediately moved over to stand next to Issa. Dean grinned and stood, where he held open his hands.

"Yes, yes, I'm Dean!" He spoke charmingly as he laughed and hugged her back. Issa merely gazed at Sam with disgust.

"You're burning that shirt, you know!" She told him snappishly, and he swallowed heavily and nodded.

"Yeah, I was gonna do that whether you wanted me to or not!" He told her as they turned their eyes back onto Dean and Andreea.

"You're a celebrity too, you know!" She told him flirtatiously, and he chuckled as he crossed his arms in front of his chest, the same shit-eating grin on his face.

"Am I known as Sam Winchester's infinitely better-looking older brother?" He asked, and Andreea looked away, smiling.

"Um, not _exactly_ . . ." She spoke in a sing-song voice as she glanced over her shoulder at Issa, who immediately stiffened. Dean shrugged.

"Oh well, I'm pretty sure people will come around eventually -"

"Tell me Andreea," Issa interrupted him angrily. "Did you honestly think I would be stupid enough to not realize that you're here for a reason that makes me _very angry_?" She asked her, and Andreea turned around and gazed at her innocently.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Issa!" She spoke, and Issa smirked as she cleared the distance between them. She stared the smaller woman down with a vengeance and she saw in her eyes, that through whatever façade she was putting up, that Andreea was scared. After all, Issa had been the lover of Lucifer. That alone, struck fear into the most naïve Angels who assumed he had given her a portion of his power. What power it was, Issa had no idea, speaking that he gained all his powers when he descended down into Hell.

"Really, you don't? Why else would Michael send you down here? He sent you down here to spy on me and Sam, to make sure that me and Dean -" She abruptly stopped herself from going further before she made things suddenly _very_ complicated, and Andreea now gazed up at her with a look of smug triumph on her face.

"Before you and Dean do what, Issa?" She asked her innocently, and over her shoulder, she saw Dean jerkily shake his head. Issa pursed her lips and continued to gaze down at Andreea with a look of hatred on her face.

"Excuse us for a minute, will you boys . . .?" Issa told them in a clipped voice as she grabbed Andreea roughly by the upper arm and pulled her outside. She closed the door and made sure it was firmly shut behind her before she roughly picked up Andreea and slammed her against the wall. "Now what the _Hell_ are you doing here?" She hissed at her, and the sticky sweet gaze was gone from Andreea's face. Instead, there was now a look of equal hatred on her face.

"Is it hard, Issa?" She asked her. "Leading a double life? Here you are, Bonded to Sam, yet fucking the brains out of his brother! Jesus, I don't know how many Angels could do that! You're talented!" She spoke, and Issa snarled.

"I asked you . . . what the Hell you were doing here!" She repeated, getting even more enraged by the minute, and Andreea smirked.

"Isn't it obvious? Michael sent me to keep an eye on you and the guys, and, if possible, to _get rid _of Sam." It was Issa's turn to smirk.

"I didn't realize that Michael was too much of a pussy to not come down here and do the job himself! Instead, he sends down a second-rate Angel who's so _stupid_, she couldn't recite the first commandment, let alone who has the subtlety and tact necessary to carry out a successful assassination on one of the best demon hunters in the United States! Not to mention honey, I can _totally _see your blonde roots coming out through that _horrible _die-job you have! Man, are you _butcher _than I remember!" Andreea gritted her teeth at Issa words, and she could tell that she was being successful in pissing her off.

"You know why I did that Issa? I dyed my hair red because Dean likes redheads! Remember Anna?" She whispered, and it was Issa's turn to grit her teeth in anger as she made a move to punch Andreea. Andreea merely laughed.

"Man, Michael wasn't _kidding _when he said you had feelings for Dean! What is it, Issa? Are you missing your little fuckboy already?" She asked her with a pout. "Oh, too bad I'm going to come between you two – you guys really have a totally sweet fairytale type thing going on!"

"I swear to God if you hurt _either_ of them, I will send you to Hell, where Lucifer will _gladly_ make room for you! He hated you as much as I did, if I remember correctly!" Andreea scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"_God_, are you fucking Lucifer now too? Man, Issa, the other Angel's weren't lying – you _are_ a whore!" Issa let out a roar and made her to punch her again, but Andreea ducked out of the way, causing Issa's hand to bury into the brick wall where her head had been moments later. She wasn't fazed by the pain, and Andreea laughed, but this time, it was less happy than it had previously been as soon as her eyes fell onto Issa's fist sunk four inches down into the brick and Issa showing no signs of feeling any pain.

"Andreea, what makes you think that you can get away with this? I can always tell Dean, you know -"

"Yeah, I suppose you could, but you forget that I have some pretty heavy leverage against you, Issa!" Andreea told her innocently as she cleared the distance between them. She wrapped her arms around Issa and her lips met her ear. "You tell Dean why I'm here, and I'll repay you by telling Sam how much you _love_ Dean's _thick _cock . . ." Issa scoffed at her and gazed at her, a grin on her face.

"And how would you know how big Dean's cock is, Andreea, speaking you've never even seen one in person before!" She asked her, and Andreea shrugged.

"That's not the point, Issa! The _point_ _is_ - if you tell Dean _anything_ pertaining to our conversation here, then I get to tell Sam how hard you came with Dean in that hotel bed a couple of nights ago!" She told her before she then shrugged. "And Hell, you can still fuck him six ways from Sunday behind Sam's back – _I don't give a shit_! And hey, maybe if you stay good, we could get together some night - just me, you and Dean . . . and maybe have Sammy watch . . . now _that_ would be good for a laugh!"

Andreea trailed off and planted a smart kiss on her cheek before breaking apart from her and then stepping away. Issa gazed at her with an expressionless face, although her eyes were full of hate. "Why are you doing this?" She asked her quietly, and Andreea's face turned expressionless as well as she gently brushed a lock of Issa's sable hair out of her face and behind her hair.

"I'm doing this because I'm a good little girl, Issa. I do what Michael and God tells me to do, because I am a good little Angel, and I know how horrible my life could be if I opposed them." She told her, and Issa raised an amused eyebrow at her.

"_I_ opposed them."

Andreea nodded as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Yeah you did. And what did that get you? It got you countless weeks of torture as punishment for siding with Lucifer, being cast down as a _Fallen_ for plotting with milksop Angel John, and now . . . by having your greatest fantasy being a threesome with two demon hunters built like fuckin' bodybuilders!" Issa's jaw hardened.

"I swear to _God_, Andreea . . . that if you hurt _either_ of them . . . I will _kill you_ myself!" She hissed through anger-clenched gritted teeth, hatred seeping down from every word that left her mouth, and Andreea simpered for a third time as she slowly closed the distance between them again.

"Sure, you can do that Issa . . . but before or after I kill Sam and then fuck Dean in the back of his Impala?" She asked, and Issa sneered at her, her expression a mix between coldness and amusement.

"Don't delude yourself - you couldn't handle him, Andreea! Dean's too much of a hot-blooded _man_ for you!" She told him, and Andreea crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at her hatefully.

"What the Hell are you insinuating?" Issa shrugged and grinned.

"Oh, I'm not insinuating _nothing_, Andreea . . . except I'm starting to _seriously_ question my brother, Michael's intelligence for sending a _lesbian_ Angel to seduce one of the straightest men I've ever had the pleasure to meet!" She grinned then. "And who very much likes rough sex! Yup, he's _not_ the faint of heart!"

Issa at least had the pleasure of seeing Andreea blanch in uneasiness at her words, before she spun around on her heels and headed back to the doorway of the hotel room where Dean and Sam awaited them with uneasiness, apprehensive and bated breath.


	16. Chapter 15

**Shit is about to hit the fan!**

**And by the way, sorry for the shortness and the overall bland feel of this chapter, but I didn't really have any inspriation to get it done coupled with about only two hours of sleep, so here ya go :)**

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><p>"They seem to be getting along well . . ." Sam spoke, a tad hesitantly as he turned around to face her, and Issa pursed her lips and glanced over Sam's shoulder at Dean and Andreea laughing, flirting and drinking beer at the bar while Issa and Sam occupied a lone booth off in a shadowy corner. Issa originally had been the one to get the booth. It was far enough away in a shadowy corner that Andreea couldn't see them and thus, wouldn't be as readily available to Issa with her cocky barbs and overall annoying-ness<p>

"They're getting along a little _too _well, if you ask me!" She replied bitterly, and he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Why do you say that? Aside from her overall annoyance, she seems like a pretty cool girl . . ."

Issa sighed and took a swig of beer before she spoke. She then informed him of their conversation the previous night (omitting all mentions of Dean in a sexual sense, of course), and Andreea's orders that, if at all possible, for her to kill him when Issa's back was turned. By the time he was done, a look of horror was on Sam's face.

"Issa . . . Issa we have to tell Dean! We have to warn him about her – in case she tries to _kill_ me -!" He spoke as he moved to get up and Issa yelped out a 'NO!' as her hand shot forward and grabbed his. He froze as a spark of warmth popped them both, and then turned his shocked eyes onto her. She averted her eyes to the table and shakily withdrew her hand from him.

"I'm sorry . . . I didn't mean to do that . . ." She murmured, and he shook his head as he slowly moved to sit back down again.

"Don't . . . think anything of it, just don't do it again without warning me first!" He returned slowly as he flexed his hand. "Damn that really _hurt_!"

Issa mumbled another apology before finally having the guts to turn her eyes onto him again. He was gazing at her with a soft, worried expression on his face that immediately made her want to cry. She would give _anything _to have the courage to tell him what had went on between her and Dean – just so Andreea wouldn't have anything against her and because she was exhausted of hiding it from him - but she was scared _shitless _of what he would do!

"Issa . . . what's wrong?" He asked her and she shook her head.

"I just . . . I don't want anything brash and irrational done right now, okay? Trust me Sam, I've grown up with Andreea – I _watched_ her be born! I can handle this one and I don't want to tell Dean, because you and I both know that he is exactly the person _to do _something brash and irrational!" Sam slowly nodded his head in agreement.

"You are right with the whole Dean thing, but are you sure you can handle this-this . . . _Angel_?" His eyes flitted to the red-headed woman standing next to his brother, and Issa nodded firmly.

"I am one hundred percent sure that Andreea will be nothing but a cake-walk for me! She touches you _or_ Dean and I will rip her head off and . . . well . . ." She shrugged then and smiled a small smile. "Let's just say nothing good will happen to her!" Sam grinned and laughed.

"You know . . . you and Dean are certainly getting along better since you two took that little road-trip together while investigating a case – a case that I never got updated about when you guys came back, by the way! So what did you guys really do? Did you guys bond over rock music and palling around with Angels?" He joked as he drained his beer and set the empty bottle aside. Issa forced herself to grin and laugh back. She took another swig of her beer, successfully draining the bottle and set hers off beside Sam's.

"You could say that . . ." She spoke and Sam shook his head as he leaned forward and took he hands in his, where he pressed them to his lips.

"I'm just glad you're back with me, Issa . . . that you're _safe_!" He told her and her grin turned into a soft smile as she leaned forward and kissed him, her hands moving to frame his face.

"I'll always come back to you Sam! You're my big lug of a boyfriend, don't you know that?" She promised him teasingly before she grinned and bit down on her bottom lip. "Now come on, big boy, get up! The hotel room's a'callin' and we've spent hardly any time together lately! And besides . . ." She spoke cheerfully as she grasped him by the arm and hefted him to his feet. "What better way for me to protect you, than in bed?"

Grinning, he obliged her, and his arm immediately snaked around her waist as they made their way to the door.

_Have a good night, _sister!

Issa immediately turned her eyes onto Andreea at the sing-song voice that appeared in her head, and the Angel tipped her beer bottle in a courteous goodbye. Issa chewed on her bottom lip for a minute, her eyes connecting with Dean's for a moment. His face was expressionless but his eyes showed her everything she needed to know.

_Keep those words for yourself; honey . . . Dean's a horny drunk . . . a _jealous_, horny drunk._

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><p>It was quite pleasant that night. It was a warm night, with a slightly cool breeze that kissed her sweat-drenched skin in a deliciously delectable way. Issa smiled and fell back against the hood of the black Impala as she brought her joint to her lips. Their brief separation from each other and the fight and make-up sex that was prior to that, had only brought Issa and Sam closer together . . . and made their love life even more passionate.<p>

She loved men. She loved everything about them. She loved their inherit roughness that most often than not got channeled into the bedroom; she loved the smell of them, the feel and sight of their body underneath her fingertips. She found their possessiveness and petty jealousies with other men when it came to women adorable – even endearing. And the roughness had _definitely _showed itself that evening in the bed with Sam.

As if giving a voice to her thoughts, Andreea's voice floated over to her from the door of the hotel room that she had no doubt followed Dean so willing into earlier that evening. "I can't _believe _that you actually like men!"

Issa grinned and laughed as she slowly blew out the smoke she had been holding in. "I don't like them, Andreea . . . I _love _them!"

"And for the love of God, _why_? They're such . . . _brutish _creatures! Unlike women, who actually -"

"Don't start, Andreea, please don't! Just because you like women better than men, don't mean that I and every other Angel and woman on the face of Heaven and Earth, do!" Issa spoke irritably, and she saw Andreea shrug her shoulders from out of the corner of her eye.

"I'm just saying -!"

"What you're saying makes no conceivable sense!" Issa spoke, successfully interrupting the much younger Angel. "You hate men? Well honey, I hate women! I have met an equal amount of 'brutish' women, than I have men, and _believe _me - they equally balance each other out! At least with men, they're more honest about their flaws!" Andreea glared at her for a moment, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"I love Michael . . . he's about the guy I ever 'loved'." She spoke, and Issa scoffed.

"You should have told me back then, you could have had him! I would have handed him over to you on a silver fuckin' platter!"

"And yet you left him . . . for Lucifer. Why?"

"Lucifer was real. He was . . . I don't know, he wasn't a pompous ass like Michael was, I guess. I could relate to him . . ." She told her as she took another drag of her joint.

"But Michael offered you the world! He offered you Heaven and Earth on gilded gold platters!"

"So did Lucifer . . . I suppose it all boiled down to who I loved more . . ."

"You know, I never did figure out why you went to Sam this time . . ." She spoke, quietly. "Truthfully, no one on Heaven knew. You even took God by surprise! Everyone thought you would go to Dean like you always did. But no . . . you went for Sam for once."

"I suppose I needed a break from Dean's inflated ego." She spoke, somewhat sarcastically, and Andreea laughed a little.

"Say anything you want, Issa - I know that you love Dean! It oozes out of every pore of your body, even now, when Sam was rutting on top of you moments ago!"

Issa's hands clenched into fists at her sides, her joint falling to the pavement beside the Impala. "You're flirting with a fine line, Andreea . . . you'd be best to stop it." She knew Andreea was goading her in the hopes that she would start something and she could go running to Sam screaming of her and Dean's infidelity, but it was hard not to . . . Andreea was just _so annoying_!

"I mean, Gabriel's been trying to quell the rumors of you, but I don't right now! Gabriel's such a sweet man once you get past his infuriating pranks and he doesn't deserve you! Now I know that you're _much _more suited for the white trash demon hunters -!"

Andreea didn't even have time to finish her sentence. By the time 'hunters' past her lips, Issa was off of the Impala and her hand was at Andreea's throat. The redhead was being held to the wall, Issa's steel-like grip a hairs breadth from crushing her delicate windpipe. Issa's face was expressionless, but her eyes . . . Oh, her eyes held the anger and wrath of Tartarus and she saw a flickering of fear snap briefly through Andreea's eyes.

"I am sick and tired of you!" Issa spoke through gritted teeth. "You march in her an agent of my own fucking brother, to kill my boyfriend because of his own petty jealousies!" Andreea let out a yelp of air, but Issa's grip on her tightened. "Any last words?"

By that time, Sam and Dean groggily opened their hotel room doors to find out what was happening and they immediately jumped awake when they saw the scene unfolding before them. Andreea saw them and grinned evilly. Before Issa could react or say anything, Andreea's words were free of her mouth,

"Sam, Issa's slept with Dean!"


	17. Chapter 16

**Okay, I hate to say it, but this fanfiction is starting to come to a close. We have this chapter and two (three, tops) more chapters to go before the epilogue. Its weird, but I feel like a chapter of my life will close with the ending of this fanfiction :(**

**Anyway, I know things seem bleak in this chapter, but I assure you, Sam and Issa will be together at the end of the fanfiction - that's the only thing that remained consistent throughout the process of writing this thing. Next chapter will probably be sad, but it'll be the last sad chapter of the fanfiction. The last two will definately be happy endings :)**

**Enjoy!**

**- Nagiana**

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><p><em>Upstairs in Heaven . . .<em>

"Please, Father, I beg you! Don't allow this to happen!"

Michael looked smug and Gabriel looked almost giddy as Castiel stepped closer to God, a pleading look on his face and his arms outstretched in disbelief. God had his back to his children, his hands folded behind his back and his head bowed.

"Castiel, please -"

"Look down at them, father, please!" Castiel interrupted him. "You tear them apart and Issa will wither and die! They love each other – their Lifemates! You cannot break a Bond without causing indefinite harm to either one of them!"

"Castiel, I appreciate you coming forward and voices your worries and opinions, but Issa cannot stay within the realm of the living! Her stay was only supposed to be temporary and with everything brewing between Michael and Lucifer -"

"Issa can protect them!" Balthazar spoke from the other side of the hall as he entered God's throne room, as on edge about the whole thing as Castiel was. The heavy doors swung open and closed as he entered, ghosting small dust clouds as they moved. Michael and Gabriel looked shocked that Balthazar dared to even show his face in Heaven again, whereas Castiel looked relieved and God interested.

"Balthazar, my child . . . didn't I banish you four centuries ago?"

"Unfortunately, you did, but, you all know how it goes . . . what happens in Heaven, stays in Heaven!" He chuckled as he held out his arms. "I come on behalf of the Angel Issa. I am her representative in this case." He spoke, and Michael shot him a look.

"You _can't_!" He snapped at him. "Number one, you're banished – you can't represent her! And secondly, Uriel represents her!"

"_God_, Michael, do you _ever_ get laid!" Balthazar asked him loudly, rolling his eyes. Michael flushed red as Gabriel snickered. "Maybe if you did, you wouldn't be such a damn stick in the mud! Also, read the damn rules! They've been updated since Issa dumped you for a cooler dude!" He pinned Michael's eyes with his for a moment before he turned them slowly back onto God. "As you know, Father, rules dictate that a banished Angel can represent a Fallen if an unbanished Angel of any rank backs him," He smiled and glanced at Castiel. "And it so happens, that Castiel here, is my backer." God continued to gaze at one of his most cocky sons.

"Balthazar is right, Michael. He _does_ have the right to represent Issa if Castiel backs him – which I have no doubt he will! However, Michael is also right. Uriel is Issa's representative, Balthazar. You cannot back her unless for some reason, Uriel cannot be here." Balthazar held up a finger.

"_Oh_, well, he can't appear, and I can explain that too! Uriel is currently busy handling a . . . _situation_ down on Earth. It's something having to do with three goats a bomb in a bank!" He spoke and Michael let out a groan as Gabriel covered his face with his hand in order to not laugh. God's face was expressionless as he turned around and took a couple of steps away as Castiel leaned into Balthazar.

"What in the _Hell _did you do?" He hissed, his eyes flashing and Balthazar glanced at him while rolling his eyes.

"Don't worry about it! The less you know, the less you can be implicated for it, speaking it's your sector its taking place in!" He hissed back and Castiel's face clouded with anger. He opened his mouth to speak, but Balthazar interrupted him by speaking again. "For God's sake, don't _worry_ about it, Castiel! It's nothing big, I promise, but Uriel's gonna have his hands full for a while!"

God's voice effectively silenced all of them when he spoke, and Balthazar and Castiel gazed at him uneasily, whilst Gabriel and Michael were anxious.

"I respect you, Balthazar, for having the courage to come up here in order to represent Issa. I know how hard it is to show your face here since you've been banished, but I am afraid . . . that I have already made my decision . . ."

"Father, _please_!" Castiel begged him, and Balthazar glanced warily between God and Castiel and back again.

"What – what's happening?" He asked quickly, and Castiel groaned out.

"He's giving Gabriel and Michael permission to bring Issa back up here!" He told him, and Balthazar turned worried eyes onto God.

"Father, you can't! Issa _will die _if you separate them!" He spoke, and God sighed.

"I have promised Gabriel that I would give him permission to bring her back up here, Balthazar, and I do not renege on my promises. Her dying . . . is a risk I will just have to take."

"She survived the Bond-breaking with Lucifer, after all!" Gabriel jumped in, and Balthazar shot him an angry look.

"Issa and Lucifer's Bond wasn't finished when he was cast down, you pig-headed _jackass_!" Balthazar snapped at him. "Issa and Sam's Bond is _finished_ – sealed by sex – you break it, one or both of them will die!" Gabriel at least had the tact to look uneasy at his words, but Michael's chuckles echoed throughout the chamber.

"That's where your wrong, Balthazar . . . shit's about to hit the fan between them!"

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><p><em>Back on Earth . . .<em>

The snapping of bone could be heard splitting through the air as Issa jerked Andreea's head sharply to the side, successfully snapping the smaller woman's neck. The redheaded Angel slumped down against the wall she had been pinned again and was dead before she hit the pavement.

She could tell from the tenseness of the air behind her, that Sam was frozen with whatever emotion was flowing through his body at that moment. She didn't want to face him now that the secret was out . . . she was terrified to face him, actually.

"S-Sammy . . .?" Dean asked hesitantly. "Sammy, for the love of God, say something!"

When he finally spoke, Sam's words were directed at Issa, and not his older brother. "Issa . . . did she tell the truth?" He asked quietly, and Dean laughed.

"Of course she didn't, Sam -"

"Yes . . . yeah she did." Issa interrupted Dean as she turned around to face Sam. Amazingly, tears weren't brimming up in her eyes like she thought they would be doing. She didn't know if she was still reeling from the fact that she had just killed a sister and a fellow Angel – killed her first person, or if she didn't even care. She opted for the first, for at the look of betrayal and anger in Sam's eyes, she felt her heart flutter.

"Issa, what are you doing?" Dean hissed at her, and Issa glanced at him and sighed.

"He's a big boy, Dean, he deserves to know the truth," She told him before heaving a sigh and closing her eyes. "Not-to-mention, God only knows how badly I've wanted to get this off of my chest!" Sam's jaw hardened as he crossed his arms in front of his massive chest.

"So, she wasn't lying . . . you and Dean did sleep together?" He spoke and Dean heaved a sigh as well and nodded his head.

"Y . . . yeah, she was telling the truth. I'm sorry, Sammy, but . . ." He shrugged weakly. "It just . . . _happened_!" He spoke and Sam scoffed as he looked away, sarcastic laughter flowing from his throat. Dean's gaze hardened as he gazed at him pointedly. "It _did_, Sam!"

"Well, sorry for not believing you!" Sam snapped at them, his eyes flickering between Dean and Issa and back again. "That's the biggest load of bullshit I've heard in a long time!" He held out a hand to Dean. "Hell, you've _ogled_ her since the first day she joined us – even when you claimed to hate the sight of her! I should have fucking realized that you would do everything in your God-given power to _fuck_ her!" Dean opened his mouth to angrily retort, but Sam swallowed hard and turned his eyes onto Issa. Finally, tears were starting to brim in her eyes and she hugged herself tightly. His eyes were ghosting with tears as well. "And you . . ." He sighed and shook his head. "I thought you would have been different, Issa. I thought you would have been able to resist Dean and his _fucking _charms!" he spoke, directing his snapping words in Dean's direction, and at least the older Winchester had the tact to look guiltily down at the pavement underneath their feet. "But I guess I was wrong . . ."

Issa shook her head. "Sam, please believe me when I say that Dean was telling the truth – it _did _just happen! I don't know how, but it did!" Sam shook his head and laughed again.

"What do you honestly take me for, Issa?" He asked loudly, angrily. "I _know_ Dean, Issa – I've grown up with him and I've had him take girlfriends away from me! I _thought_ I knew you!" He shook his head, his eyes lighting up with betrayal and anger again. "Jessica, Madison, Ruby . . . I lost all of them and it hurt like Hell. When I met you, and you told me about this-this _Bonding _thing, I thought it would be different this time around!" He shrugged weakly. "I suppose I was wrong . . ."

Issa shook her head. "Sam, no, you weren't wrong!" She told him as she crossed the distance between them, her hands immediately moving to fan out on his chest. She gazed up at him with pleading eyes. "I _love you_ Sam! I and Dean have not touched since we slept together!" Sam shook his head and moved gently out of her grasp, his eyes closed as he desperately tried to hold back tears.

"Issa . . . you hurt me! I don't . . . I don't know anymore. I don't know if I love you anymore."

At those words, and as Sam stepped away from her, her hands slowly falling from his chest, Issa felt the familiar snapping of something inside her. Instead of being a tolerable pain like the first time . . . this time, it bordered on excruciating.

"Sam, no . . .!" Issa gasped out as she stumbled and fell to the pavement, her eyes wide with fear as he clutched at her chest. Her heart was racing like a rabbit escaping a predator and shivers started racking her petite frame. A cool sensation started at the top of her head, almost like someone had cracked an egg on her head and the white was spreading down her face and face.

The warmth she had craved and derived from Sam slowly left her body, only to be replaced by a frigid cold.

"Oh God Sam, please no . . .!" She gasped out hoarsely and even Sam and dean froze at the sight. Her hand was at her throat now, and she was gasping for breath. It was like all color was going out of a TV show, only to be replaced with black and white. All the color seemed to leave her along with the warmth, causing her to appear almost dull and lifeless. Her hair and eyes lost their sheen and healthiness, and her skin lost its glow and pallor.

Issa was dying.

"Oh God - Issa!" Dean shouted out as he ran over to her and fell to his knees beside her, just as she was slumping to the side. She slumped into his arms, and he gazed at Sam with wide, angry and frightened eyes. "What did you do to her, Sam!" He demanded of him angrily, his hands rubbing along her arms, trying wildly to get warmth back into her body. Sam shrugged indifferently. Really, he was terrified that something was happening to Issa – something deadly, but he refused to allow his worry to show. It only got easier when Dean crumpled to his knees beside her and she slumped into his arms.

"Nothing that she didn't deserve . . ." He spoke coldly before he spun on his heels and walked off. He didn't walk into the hotel room he shared with Issa; he walked off in the direction of the nearby bar. Dean eyes darkened as he picked Issa up and kicked open his door, where he lay the unconscious Angel down in his bed before he left the room and chased after Sam.

"Look, Sam, she loves you, okay? She beat herself up all day when we realized what we done! Hell, she _still _does!" He told him but Sam resolutely ignored him. "For God's sake, Sam, _she needs you_! She needs your warmth or she'll die!"

Sam glanced behind him at his older brother and Dean stopped chasing him, his eyes widening in shock at the hurt, anger and coldness his eyes possessed. "I don't care anymore. My love for her died when she slept with you Dean."

Dean swallowed heavily. He didn't know whether to keep chasing after his brother or leave him alone to stew.

For once, he didn't know what to do.


	18. Chapter 17

**Yeah, sorry for the relative shortness of the chapter and the . . . rushed-sounding content, but I wrote it around five in the morning because I couldn't sleep. Overall, I like how I did it and I MIGHT go back in and edit it, but I'm not sure yet :/**

**Two more chapters to go until the end! :(**

**Read, review and enjoy!**

**- Nagiana**

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><p>Everything was cold . . . so cold . . .<p>

Even piled under tons and tons of blankets as she was, Issa was still cold. Even when Dean stripped down to next to nothing and climbed into the bed, where he wrapped his frame around hers in a last bid desperation to give her warmth, she only felt smoky, dying tendrils. She craved the warmth of Sam . . . that all-encompassing warmth of the sun.

"Issa . . . Issa, talk to me!" Dean begged her and Issa swallowed heavily.

"I'm cold, Dean . . . I'm so damn cold!" Dean nodded as he rubbed her arms, desperate to spark any sort of life back into her.

"I know Issa, I know! I'm trying Goddamn near everything!" He promised her and she shook her head.

"It's useless to try Dean. Only Sam's warmth will help me now." She told him. "Only he can take it back." She felt lifeless inside . . . dead inside. Was this truly what it felt like being an Angel back on Heaven? Did she truly once feel this way – this dead inside? No wonder Angels Fell so much! The warmth was their own brand of Heroin. People rarely did it out of fear but they all secretly wanted it and when they finally succumbed to it . . . it was dying when they left them.

Even when Dean bowed his head, his forehead moving to lie on her shoulder and he started crying, she still felt nothing inside.

"Goddammit, why did you have to go to Sam, Issa?" He asked through his tears. "I would never have done this! I would never have been so damn selfish! God, I wish I didn't have to _feel_!" Issa smiled a small, weak smile.

"No, you are selfish, Dean . . ." She spoke. "It's your damnable pride that would have kept you from doing it!" The both of them laughed then, and Issa shuddered again, both at a feeling of iciness that spread up her spine and at the smoky hotness of Dean's hand gripping her upper arm.

"Do you feel nothing?" He asked her quietly, and she shrugged.

"Your hand on my arm . . . it's a little warm, but it's not enough to fix me." She told him and he laughed bitterly.

"'_Fix_ you'! God, you make it sound like your fucking broken!" The bitterness in his tone was evident and Issa shook her head.

"No, I'm not broken and I don't think I'm dying either. Well . . . not in the same respect that mortal's die. I'm just . . . I'm becoming an Angel again." She told him and he scoffed.

"Yeah, well next time you fall, make damn sure you come to me first!" He told her and she grinned and laughed.

"So that _does _mean the whole 'I-get-you-next-turn' thing is still going to hold out?" She asked, and he nodded and chuckled as he closed his eyes and buried his face in the crook of her neck. He breathed in deeply her scent of gardenias and for a moment, Issa felt herself become her old self.

"Oh you bet your sweet ass it is!" He breathed and she shuddered slightly. This time, she didn't know if it was because of the coldness, or Dean himself.

* * *

><p>"Hey, let me get a beer please . . ."<p>

The burly bartender nodded in Sam's direction and reached under the bar. He withdrew with a _Budweiser_ beer bottle in his hand and popped the cap off before he slid it to him. Sam caught it with a small thank-you before he took a swig and turned his eyes onto the TV. He sat down at the bar as he did so as well.

And fuck him. It was turned – for some fucked up reason – onto some sappy black and white romance movie.

Sam groaned and rolled his eyes as he placed his beer bottle on the bar and rubbed his face with his hands. "Something botherin' ya?" Sam brought his face up out of his hands, only to find the burly bartender wiping glasses off a few inches away. Sam pursed his lips and sighed as he took another swig of his beer.

"You could say that again . . ." He muttered under his breath and the bartender raised an eyebrow.

"Something you need to get off your chest?"

Sam sat there for a moment, savoring his beer and gazing at the bottle for a moment before he swallowed. "I found out . . . not a mere five minutes ago . . . that my girlfriend had cheated on me with my own brother." He spoke and the bartender's eyebrows shot up.

"Oh, wowza! Damn, son, you get one on the house for that!" He spoke as he reached under the bar and brought up another beer. He placed it before him and Sam smiled and thanked him again as he drained the beer he had been working on. He popped the cap off of the fresh one and took another guzzle. "Why did she do it?"

Sam shrugged. "Don't know. All I know it, that they took a little road trip together for _one _day and on that _one _day, they slept together."

"Well . . . was it just that one time?"

Sam turned a surprised gaze onto the bartender. "What did you say?" The bartender shrugged.

"Well . . . was it just that one time, or did she continue doing it?" Sam shrugged.

"Well, they both claim that it was just that one time, and I suppose they haven't been alone since, but -"

"Then there ya go!" The bartender interrupted him with a shrug of his shoulders. When Sam continued to gaze at him in shock, the bartender sighed and placed the glass he had been cleaning on the bar before he sidled over to him. He leaned on the bar and gazed at Sam pointedly in the eyes. "Look, sonny – if there is _anything_ I have learned in my life, it is that everyone can have a little slip-up – whether its drugs or alcohol or cheating!" He told him before he pointed to the beer bottle in his hand. "And looking at you right now, I can tell you're having a little slip-up too. You don't normally guzzle beer after beer after beer, do you?" Sam shook his head.

"Yeah, but that's not the same -!"

"Isn't it, though?" The Bartender asked him, interrupting him again. There was a slightly confused twinkle playing out in his eyes. "But isn't it the same? Your slip just _happens_ to be a little bit different than hers! It's still a slip, though, and I garun-damn-tee you that you're going to feel horrible about it in the morning, just like she did after her slip-up!" The bartender shifted on his feet a little bit. "Now tell me something, sonny . . . do you love her?"

The answer came from Sam's lips without any hesitation, whatsoever.

"She's my world!" The bartender shrugged again.

"Then there ya go! She had a little slip-up, your _having_ a little slip-up! You're both even, as far as anyone here's concerned. But the thing is, you love her and I would bet anything that she loves you, and hey . . . everyone deserves a second chance."

He then smiled and reached under the bar, where he took out another beer. He gently placed it in front of him. "I gotta go in the back for a minute. Here's another one if you need one while I'm gone."

The bartender then turned around and went into the freezer to get another case of beer, shouting at a couple of rowdy Frat boys in the corner to calm the fuck down as he did so. When he returned, Sam was gone . . . the bottle of _Budweiser _unopened and a twenty down on the bar.

* * *

><p>"Issa, are you <em>sure<em> that you're going to be alright?" Dean asked her as he sat on the edge of his bed, watching as Issa paced back and forth before him. She was trying anything to get warm, even if it included pacing back and forth as an exercise to get her to sweat. So far, nothing was working.

Issa opened her mouth to say something, but they were interrupted by a man's voice coming from a few feet away. Both of them spun around, knowing the voice all too well and dreading it at the same time.

"Of course she'll be okay! She's Issa! She's been through worse!"

"Gabriel . . ." Issa breathed out, and Gabriel smiled and held open his arms.

"Issa, darling - you're safe!" He spoke in clear worry. Issa immediately ran into his arms, where she hugged him tightly, despite Dean's fumbling grasp on her arm. Even if Gabriel's arrival signified a huge change in her immediate life, he was still her brother and a fellow Archangel, and it was good to see a friendly face.

"Gabriel, it's so good to see you again! Wait . . . why are you here?" She asked him, her eyes wide with confusion as she broke apart from him, her hands moving to grasp his arms. He laughed and continued to hold his arms open to her.

"Isn't it obvious, Issa? I'm here to take you home!" He spoke and immediately, Dean's voice rang out, telling her not to listen to him. Issa's eyes connected with Gabriel's, however, and she couldn't but admit that he certainly made a sweet deal.

"But Dean . . . I have nothing here anymore!" Issa spoke as she turned around to face him. She shook her head. "The earth holds nothing for me -!"

"Issa, if you won't stay for Sam, then for the love of God, stay for me!" He begged her quickly as he closed the gap between them, his hands immediately moving to frame her face. "Please, think about this -!"

"Oh, puh-_lease_, Dean! After how Sam walked out on her, I doubt she wants a fickle mortal anymore!"Gabriel laughed as he gently took her hand. Issa turned her gaze back onto Gabriel, only to find that his face had softened. "Issa, come back to me, please! I've been lost without you! You being down here . . . I've worried for you!" Slowly, Issa moved out of Dean's grasp and neared Gabriel. Dean yelled at her to rethink things, but Gabriel was right . . . the earth held nothing for her anymore and Gabriel was an _Angel_! He would always love her – forever and ever and ever –

"Issa . . . Issa, don't go!"

The voice that came next, made everything in the room come to a grinding halt. Gabriel adopted a look of anger on his face, Dean's, relief. Issa whirled around, only to find Sam standing in the doorway, a look of pleading on his face. "Issa, I beg you, don't go!" He breathed out while moving towards her. He held his arms out to her and she ran into them, tears streaming down her cheeks. She buried her sobbing face in his neck and he hugged her to him tightly as her body slowly came alive with warmth again.

"I thought you left me!" She sobbed. "I didn't know what to do! I felt so lost!" Sam shushed her as he rocked her gently back and forth.

"I wanted to leave too, but I got some pretty good last minute advice from a bartender that changed my mind!" He laughed before they broke apart. Sam, smiling, gently brushed away her tears with his thumbs. "Issa, for the last time, I am _begging _you not to go! I love you and I would _die _without you!" he told her, and she bit down on her bottom lip.

"I have to go, Sam! Gabriel's here – he's been sent by God! I can't defy an order from God!" She told him and he swallowed heavily.

"Surely there's something we can do -!"

"Uh, no there's not," Gabriel interrupted him gleefully. "It's already been tried and you can't!" Sam gazed at Issa and she gazed back, the both of them not willing to let the other go. But they knew that Gabriel was right. Then, Sam swallowed heavily.

"Then let me spend one last night with you, Issa . . . let me say goodbye." He spoke and Issa nodded as she turned back to Gabriel.

"Come back tomorrow morning, Gabriel. I'll go with you then, I swear." She told him and he looked suspicious for a moment before slowly nodding.

"Okay . . . but God won't be happy if you renege on that promise!" He warned her, and she nodded.

"I know. I'll go with you, I promise." She told him and he disappeared seconds later. Then, with a gentle grasp on her hand, Sam pulled her into their room.

They were in each other's arms in a heartbeat; Issa snuggled comfortably in her big lug's arms while his face and nose were buried in her hair. "I'm so sorry I left . . ." He murmured. "But I was so blinded by pain that I couldn't think straight for a moment! I swear to God, that if we get through this, it won't ever happen again!"

Issa shook her head sadly as she broke apart from him. She turned her eyes up to his. "There is no getting through this one, Sam. This is quite permanent, I'm afraid. I have to go with Gabriel tomorrow morning."

"But-but Issa -!"

"I know, Sam, I know!" She shushed him as she placed a gentle hand on his sculpted cheek. "But let's not saying anything, okay? Let's just make this last night together something to remember!"

Sam pulled her towards him then, wiping ineffectually at her teary face with his thumbs and then he leaned into her sobbing face and, tentatively, uncertain of whether or not he was doing the correct thing given the circumstances, he kissed her, full upon her burning lips.

There was a moment of slight hesitation and then her mouth opened against his and her tongue slid into his mouth and he was, under the wooden and plaster ceiling of the hotel room with the horrible décor – utterly and irrevocably in Heaven for the last time.

Sam had kissed before with other women and girls when he was younger and even made love to a select few, but he had never done so with so much love in his heart . . . with any of them before. Issa was his – she was his Lifemate, his Fallen Angel . . . his love. If she never came back to him, he would never forget her. He would love her always and would never love another like he had loved her.

His hands felt her breasts through the silk of her shirt, touched the hard nubs of her nipples. Whimpering with need, she clung to him hard, as if she were drowning - fumbling with his shirt and his pants - him, with her shirt and pajama bottoms.

Issa was small, so small in fact, that Sam was constantly scared that he would accidentally hurt her and break her. He didn't though, no matter how many times they made love, much to his relief. She wriggled and writhed beneath him, gasping and moaning and guiding him with her hands as he kissed and teased her into an even more trembling mass beneath him.

She placed a hundred burning kisses on his face and chest and then she was above him, straddling him, gasping and laughing, sweating and slippery as a minnow and he was arching and pushing into her. He was exalting as well, his head full of her and only her - his sweet Angel.

At the end, he would have pulled out, but she held him inside her, wrapped her legs around him, pushed against him so hard that he felt that the two of them occupied the same place in the universe. As if, for one powerful, engulfing moment, they were the same person, giving and receiving, as the moon grew brighter, shining down onto the floor of the hotel room from the open-shaded window.

He flipped Issa over and pressing her into the bed, he entered her again, gently moving inside her and she rocked her hips against his, their moans filling the air around them again. Her gasps were sharp and pleasure-filled and her fingernails bit down into his bare shoulders, into the skin of his back and his sides. Sam's hands fisted into the sheets, his eyes closed and his mind filled with only Issa again. They climaxed together again, amid an explosion of heat not soon after that and he pulled out and collapsed on the bed beside her, where he took her into his arms.

They lay there for a moment, catching their breath before Issa broke it.

"Sam, I'm pregnant."

The words hung between them like an ax, and he craned back slightly to gaze at her in incredulity. "You . . . you're pregnant?" He asked her quietly, and she nodded and laughed a little.

"Yeah, don't worry, it's yours. I found out a long time after me and Dean slept together. The baby's yours Sam . . ." Sam shook his head.

"I wasn't worried if it was mine or not."

He didn't have to elaborate. Issa got what he meant. "Look, Sam, I'm sorry! I meant to tell you earlier, but . . ." She trailed off and he kept her from crying again by pulling her into his arms again.

"Issa, shush now! Look, I promise we will get through this! I _will _have you back in my arms, Issa! You and our child both will be back in my arms!"

For a moment . . . for one glorious moment . . . Issa believed him.


	19. Chapter 18

Heaven was beautiful . . . but she had no one to share it with. She wondered if it had been as beautiful before she left, but she knew it had, she just didn't _look_. The colors of Earth were much duller compared to the bright and all-encompassing beauty of Heaven and the Angels that dwelled within. Mortals that she had previously thought beautiful were ugly as lepers compared to the beauty of the Angels surrounding her – Vittorio with his long auburn hair; Margarita and her black hair that seemed so black it looked as if it was made by the waters of the Styx itself.

There was Michael . . . with his blonde hair and green eyes and indelible grin, and Gabriel, with his trickster ways and his deeply-engrained need for her love. She had craved Sam's warmth like a drug – had almost died because of it, had he not returned, and it was to that, that Issa likened Gabriel's need for her affection – her love. He knew of the child that slumbered underneath her heart – the half mortal child that belonged to a Demon Hunter, but chose to ignore it. The very idea would have been a disgrace to all of Angel-kind but that did not mean she did not hear the murmurs.

God, Balthazar, Gabriel and Castiel were the only Angels who Issa knew _with a certainty_, knew that she was with child. All the other Angels could do was speculate and whisper behind her back. They weren't sure, but if the rumors held true, then nothing good could happen to her. Angels did not breed. They were dead. They were as cold and lifeless as the Vampires were. An Angel could not pregnant and that Angel, if she was pregnant, could not reside the Kingdom of Heaven.

And that seemed all that Angels could do. All they ever did was gossip. She had never realized that this was the favorite pastime in Heaven! Who had taken who as a lover; was it true that Michael was romancing a newborn Angel; was _Issa _really pregnant? These questions and more flitted about the bright marble and gold palaces of Heaven, through the beautiful gardens and the magnificent balls. Never, had Issa found herself in more rumors except for when Lucifer started his riots and she stood by him. Never, had she felt so ostracized.

She missed her Winchester Boys. She missed Sam and Dean, she missed her warmth. She missed Dean's constant jokes and his cheesy flirting. She missed Sam's warmth . . . his arms around her in the night, his lips pressing against her hair . . .

But even now, she didn't know who she missed more.

Issa was brought slightly out of her thoughts for a moment and forced herself to keep her eyes on fixed the painted mural on the ceiling of her bedchamber as Gabriel grunted on top of her. It was one of her favorite pieces of art in the entire palace, and she often lost herself in it as she coupled with the Angel who she very much wished could be another man at that moment. It was of thousands of puttee swirling around blazing light that was God - clouds parting around them in awe of His magnificence. It was done by Michelangelo when she finally saved up enough Souls to buy the commission and she must admit, he did a fantastic job. She wondered many times why they got so close to God's rays, as the heat would surely burn up their wings, but she hadn't come up with an answer.

Sweat from his brow struck her neck.

She was bare underneath him. Her olive-colored flesh was as cold as the grave underneath his, and limp with indifference. For but a moment, she wondered how many men she had taken to this bed, underneath her favorite mural and amid the silken sheets. There had been Michael and Lucifer, yes – Lucifer so many times that for a while, her bedroom had temporarily became his! Then there was Jon . . . Balthazar she had taken once, so very long ago she barely even remembered the event, when they were drunk off of ambrosia. She didn't recommend it again but those feelings went away slightly when Balthazar assured her he was much better sober. There was Balthazar and now there was Gabriel.

Gabriel . . . oh poor man . . . he had no idea how much Issa was so dearly wishing it was Sam in his place above her right now. It could even be Dean – she wouldn't have cared as long as it wasn't him!

She swallowed heavily and wrapped her legs loosely around his hips, trying to encourage him so the entire ordeal could finish as quickly as possible.

She turned her focus back to the mural in the hopes everything else would fade away, but it didn't. She was an Archangel and venerated by many and yet . . . she was not loved. The other Angels loathed her for her beauty, the way men were drawn to her like moths to a flame. They envied her for breaking Michael's heart into a thousand unmendable pieces – for urging Lucifer to split from God like King Henry VIII split from the Catholic Church. And now, they hated her for stringing along Gabriel, even though she dearly would have begged to differ. She didn't give Gabriel any reason to claim her as his. As far as she knew, she was still Bonded to Sam, so they could never be Bonded the way Gabriel would have liked and still craved. She didn't love him anymore – surely he knew that!

The trickster Archangel's legendary Pride had been wounded the day she took Sam Winchester into her body and then subsequently Bonded with him. She had no doubt that deep down inside, he hated her for that. She didn't care. She didn't really care about anything anymore.

Gabriel laid more of his weight into her and Issa's breathing became short for a split second. He was as bare above her as she was underneath him. It wasn't any different from the way it had been long ago, when they had first began their relationship, except that his movements now often became rough with frustration.

He felt it too, she knew, the love she no longer bore him . . . the love that had been transplanted into another.

Gabriel pawed at her breast and she had to bit her lip to keep a groan of discomfort from slipping out. His touches had always been clumsy, but she had loved them nonetheless because they were coming from a man she trusted with her life. He had been there for her after Lucifer was struck down and she had thanked him for it and she had loved him for the same reason. Michael and Lucifer both had been splendid lovers, and even though Gabriel knew nothing of how to perform their methodical, passion-inducing caresses and movements, she had accepted his clumsiness as a sign that he was just inexperienced – that he would get better with time.

Time, for once, had been proven wrong.

The puttee on the mural above her looked down at her with lifeless eyes.

She held her breath as she felt Gabriel nearing his release. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, as he always did, and whispered sweet nothings to her as he quivered and filled her.

The light of God at the center of the mural dimmed and the puttee seemed even more devoid of life. They had life at one time, this she knew, because on countless nights she had remained awake in bed to watch them dance around the light of God, holding hands like the children in the various school yards that she and Sam and Dean would pass by on their search for missions.

But now . . . now there was nothing.

Issa touched his back lightly as he kissed her neck, thanking her for what she had given him. She wondered what he could be talking about. She had laid there a consenting woman, but it felt more like a duty to her brethren than anything else. Like the painting above her, there was no life between them, no fiery center like the sun that had existed between her and Sam – that manifested itself in their passionate lovemaking that was always full of grins and joyous laughter and breathless sounds of pleasure.

She felt tears brim in her eyes. She told herself not to be so selfish. The Angels loved him, and so would she – until her last breath . . . the breath she did not have.

"Issa?"

She looked over to him, his chest heaving as he reclined beside her. He had covered himself back up but she still laid there beside him, nudity bore to the world, unabashedly. She had nothing to be ashamed of now.

"Yes, Gabriel?"

He brushed her hair from her face, "Is something the matter?"

She closed her legs and rolled over onto her side, her back to him. "I'm fine."

"Did I hurt you?"

She shook her head. The very question was preposterous. She and Sam had made rougher love than that before. Hell, she and Dean's little escapade had been infinitely more passionate than that sickly excuse!

"Then what is it?"

She heard the cry of a baby echoing in the distance . . . a man's laughter accompanying it.

She knew that was her baby. Sam's baby . . .

Issa shook her head as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood. She yanked up the robe draped over the back of a nearby chair and pulled it on. She tied the drawstring and felt Gabriel's silent eyes on her all the while.

"Let me go, Gabriel . . ." She asked him quietly, and he furrowed his eyebrows gently in confusion.

"What do you mean Issa?" He asked and she swallowed heavily.

"You know what I mean . . ." She spoke as she padded across the room to the double doors that led to her portico and the beautiful garden beyond. She gazed out into the beauty beyond and once again, heard the cries of a baby echoing on the wind.

"Issa, I told you! Your status as a Fallen was only temporary! You had to come up eventually -!"

"Do you know . . . how much I love him, Gabriel?" She asked him quietly. "I love him more than anything – I love Dean more than anything! It hurts being away from both of them, especially now . . ." Her hand moved to settle over her stomach, where Sam's child grew strong. Gabriel scoffed as he too got out of bed and moved over to fetch himself a glass of ambrosia.

"For God's sake, Issa, he's a mortal! He's probably long forgotten about you!" He laughed but his voice was drowned out. The cries of the baby came louder and louder in her mind, accompanied intermittently with the laughter of a man. It was her child and Sam . . . she knew it was.

Issa shook her head slowly. "Sam would never have forgotten about me, Gabriel . . ." She spoke quietly as she grasped the handles of the doors and swung them open with gusto. A warm breeze splashed over her body and her feet, moving of their own accord, stepped into the garden.

"Issa, I know mortal men and when they see a beautiful woman walk by them – Issa? Issa, what are you doing?"

Issa, her feet still moving of their own accord, was taking her slowly to the edge of the garden, where the sheer drop to earth loomed dark and forbidding.

"Issa, what the fuck are you doing?!"

"I'm going home, Gabriel . . ."

"But this is your home! Your home is with me!"

Issa grinned and threw back her head. Laughter poured forth from her lips with relish. It had been the first true laugh she had uttered since arriving back in heaven. She uttered it because, finally, she was going back to Sam.

"I'm sorry Gabriel, but my home was never with you! Heaven no longer became my home with Lucifer was struck down. My home is down there . . . with Sam and Dean. My home is with the mortals I love!" She told him, and he grabbed roughly onto her upper arm.

"Issa, _I love you_!" He spoke, and she turned a now sorrowful look onto him.

"If you love me, Gabriel, then you would let me go to him!" She told him, her voice becoming low and filled with hurt. Tears welled in her eyes again as well as his.

"If you go, and you Fall willingly, there isn't no coming back! You're a Fallen Angel forever!" Issa nodded.

"I know and I accept that. I accept that as long as Sam will have me," She shook her head. "Gabriel, everywhere I go, I am haunted by the cries of a baby. I cannot live here if I do not have my child. If he dies . . . you lose me anyway. At least this way, I live and you know I live." Gabriel gazed at her for a moment before swallowing heavily and slowly letting go of her arm.

"Go to him . . ." He spoke, turning his eyes down to the garden so that she could not see the tears streaming down his cheeks. "Go to him before I change my mind!"

Issa smiled a small smile as she moved over to him. She framed his face in her hands, where she pressed a gentle, loving kiss to his forehead. "Thank you, Gabriel . . ." She murmured before she slowly moved away from him. He watched her as – seemingly in slow motion - she turned on her heels and made at a sprint for the edge.

She jumped off the precipice of Heaven and swan-dived to Earth, the only thought in her mind that she would see Sam and Dean soon . . . that she hoped they still remembered her . . . that Sam still loved her.

Her eyes closed and tears of relief leaked out from underneath her closed eyelids as she felt the familiar burning sensation of her wings being clipped – of being burned. Earth drew closer and closer and with it, the two men she could not live without.

* * *

><p><em>Hurt <em>by Johnny Cash played over the radio of the Impala as Dean and Sam drove down the deserted highway towards Sympathy, Colorado. They had heard rumors of a few haunting going around there and speaking it was the only rumors they had heard in a while, they had no choice but to take it. They were getting dangerously low on cash anyway.

Both men had taken Issa's disappearance differently. Sam had raged and raged – had thrown things everywhere – thrown daggers so deeply into trees that it took his entire strength to yank them out. He beat himself into exhaustion every day until he was sore and barely able to move later that night. It wasn't productive for his anger but it was the only way he could sleep in blissful abandonment – the same sleep that he had slept when he still had Issa with him.

But Dean was what scared him the most. Dean had donned his atypical emotionless mask whenever he was around Sam but when he was alone . . . that was a completely different story. Sam had awoken sometime in the wee hours of the previous morning to find Dean's bed empty. It was raining outside and it the pouring outside world, that Sam found Dean, shirtless and hunched over while kneeling in the rain, sobbing his eyes out. He knew that Dean missed her, he just didn't know he missed her _that _much . . . as much as he did.

"Dean . . . I saw you last night . . ." He eventually spoke hesitantly and Dean pursed his lips but other than that, showed no other emotion.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw you . . . out in the rain. You were crying . . . you miss her, don't you?"

"Well I'd be lyin' if I said I didn't, Sammy!" He spoke, somewhat bitterly and somewhat sarcastically, and Sam swallowed.

"Why didn't she go to you, Dean?" He asked quietly. "You never would have left her like I did. You never would have been so self-absorbed. I threw her away, I hurt her! You never would have hurt her! You rather would have slit your own throat than hurt her – I saw that last night when I saw how much pain you were in." Dean shook his head.

"You know, there are days when I wonder that same exact thing," He confessed. "There are days when I envy you for it. But . . . I can't be selfish when it comes to her, Sam. I love her too much."

"Dean . . . what is that?"

Dean slowly pulled off to a stop on the side of the road and peered out the window. There was a tiny pinprick of light in the sky that was growing larger and larger as it moved. "Dean . . . is that what I think it is?" He asked in nervous excitement. Dean didn't even wait. He already had the door open and was jumping out of the car. Sam followed suit and gave chase after Dean's fast sprint into the nearby woods, where surely the pinprick would eventually land.

Dean's heart raced in his chest . . . Sam's raced faster. What if it was Issa? What if she was coming back to them?

Dare they get their hopes up?

Dean was roaring Issa's name as they got closer to the now crashed pinprick of light. He was roaring her name in a vain hope that she would answer.

And eventually she did.

A very faint 'DEAN!' came floating back to them and for a moment, both of their hearts stilled in their chests. Grinning, they glanced at each other before taking off at another sprint, calling her name and then following her reply with their names. They could hear her voice laced with tears and when they finally reached the clearing, they were both tackled into a huge hug by a naked Issa. Laughing, they hugged her back, tightly, until they were forced onto their knees on the pine needled and leafed forest floor. She pressed joyous kisses to each of their faces and they laughed.

They had her back . . . they actually had her back!

"What . . . how . . .?!" Sam asked, clear confusion splitting across his features.

Issa shook her head, a teary grin splitting across her features. "Don't worry about it, guys! Just don't worry about it!" She laughed as Dean buried his face into the crook of her neck, pressing kisses to the now heated flesh located there.

"Goddammit Issa, don't you _ever _do that again!" He growled and she shook her head.

"Don't worry! I'm here to stay this time!"


	20. Epilogue

**God, last chapter here already! I hate it, I really do! I've been working on this fanfiction for so long now that its kinda like my Game of Thrones one - I'm gonna feel like I'm losing a part of myself by pressing the 'complete' button on the properties menu :(**

**But anyway, it had to happen and as always I want to give a shout out to Katara Melody Cullen, SomebodyWhoCares and Mali Bear's Buddy for supporting me throughout the journey of this fanfiction - without you guys pestering me to update, this fanfiction probably would have been abandoned long ago! I thank you all, I love you all and good luck with your own stories :)**

**By the way, I do have a sequel to this one that I'm probably gonna upload in a few days. Its not that similar to this one speaking, Issa and Sam's child is a teenager and it is predominantly a DeanxIssa fanfic (you'll see why when I post it ;) but I do think its gonna be a good one because I do have a lot of ideas for it and it would be great if some of my fans here will shift their love to that one too with tons and TONS of reviews! As always, if you haven't favorited me or alerted me, then do so, or you might miss out on the story!**

**Anyway, sorry for the shortness of this last chapter, but I love it! - I really do! I really wanted to do a cheerful, funny ending to the last two depressive downers that were the previous chapters and I think I've managed to do that . . . ;)**

**Anyway! Thanks for following me and all your wonderful reviews! Luv ya bunches!**

**- Nagiana**

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><p>"Where's Sammy again?" Dean asked, his eyebrows furrowing in slight confusion, and Issa gestured to the nearby Seven-11.<p>

"I think he's getting stuff for the road," She spoke and he grinned and laughed.

"Damn and I thought _you _were the pregnant one who was supposed eat a lot!" He joked and she shot him a playfully mean look as she gently shoved him. Her hand moved reflexively to her slight pregnancy bump and he returned her shove with an impish grin.

"So, we've already ascertained that I'm the better hunter, so, logically, I have to ask another question! Who's better in bed - me or Sam? You have yet to answer and I'm not gonna stop pestering you until you tell me!" Issa grinned as they continued on their way to the black Impala parked on the other side of the Seven-11 parking lot.

"Don't worry, Dean, you were always the good one! But then again, it's kind of unfair. You've had _centuries _of practice with me, haven't you?" She teased him, grinning, as she playfully slapped his ass and Dean returned the grin as he moved closer to her.

"Yeah, well I don't really see that as unfairness towards Sammy!" He teased her back as he framed her face with his hands and kissed her - deep, hot, wet and magnificently passionate, his tongue filling her mouth and making love to hers in a way that immediately made her want him with a keening need that wasn't all too unfamiliar now. Issa returned the kiss for a moment, her arms even going to wrap lazily around his neck before they broke apart. She gave him a look.

"Dean, you really shouldn't! Sam could see -!"

"Oh _come on_ guys!" Sam shouted in disbelief as he walked out of the gas station, his arms outstretched in the same emotion that flickered on his face. He had a plastic bag of bottled drinks and chips in one hand, his cellphone and bottle of coke in the other. Dean and Issa grinned like too conspiratorial teenagers as he neared them, Sam giving Dean a disbelieved look of death. "_I _have Issa on Sundays, remember?!" Dean stood there and thought for a minute. Then, he shook his head.

"No, we interchange Sundays, remember? And I'm pretty _damn_ sure that this is _my_ Sunday!" He spoke, and Sam shook his head, immediately moving to point a finger at him.

"No! No, no, no, no, no! You got her last Sunday because that was when you guys went to go have Sunday dinner with Abby!" Dean shook his head.

"No, it wasn't! That was the Sunday _before _last! I remember because Abby made that cinnamon apple pie that was friggin' _awesome_!"

"Dean, yes it was! I specifically remember -!"

"Guys, will you be quiet for a minute!" Issa shouted, effectively causing the both of them to come sputtering to a halt. They turned their wide-eyed faces onto her and she grinned.

"Don't you guys remember? We stopped Interchanging Sundays for this very damn reason! Now, on Sundays, I get both of you, remember?" Dean and Sam gazed at each other in dawning remembrance again before Dean grinned and picked her up. Issa shrieking with surprise, Dean slung her over his back like a sack of potatoes and took off at a full sprint towards the car.

"Come on, Sam - hurry up before she changes her mind!" Dean yelled over his shoulder. Sam grinned and shook his head as he took off at a full sprint after his booking brother.

God, what did this family come to?


End file.
